The American Israelite, February 14, 2013

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Obama will visit Israel for first time as president this spring

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Ohav Shalom and NHS rockin’ out to ‘Schmaltz…

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The family fun unfolds at Once Upon a Purim

DINING OUT

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Parker’s Blue Ash Tavern—the right bet for Valentine’s

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2013 Audi A5— attention is earned

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Camp at the J offers unique camper experiences

Cedar Village opens rehab center for people of all ages at Mayerson JCC People who need physical therapy to recover from a sports injury or surgery now have another option: the Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center at the Mayerson JCC. The Amberley Village location offers comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation services for people of all ages with a wide range of medical conditions.

The joint effort combines the rehabilitation expertise of the Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center and the extensive fitness facilities of the Mayerson JCC. Cedar Village already provides inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services at its campus in Mason. Its new location is on the ground floor of the Mayerson JCC, surrounded by the JCC’s modern fitness facilities.

“I’m proud of the rehabilitation program Cedar Village has developed in Mason and I’m thrilled that we’re now able to provide the same high-quality services at a second location,” said Carol Silver Elliott, CEO and president of Cedar Village. “This is the culmination of a long-time dream.”

As it does in Mason, Cedar Village has equipped the Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center at the Mayerson JCC with the latest physical therapy technology, such as a medical laser, which can promote healing and increase blood circulation. The innovative laser can treat various conditions, including arthritis, bursitis, fibromyalgia and muscle injuries, by waving or rolling the laser’s wand over the skin.

The Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center at the Mayerson JCC also has free weights and kettle bells; a Biodex trainer, which is used to assess and treat balance problems; and a Nintendo Wii system, commonly known as Wiihabilitation, which also treats balance disorders.

Plus, under the guidance of a Cedar Village physical therapist, patients will be able to use the JCC’s fitness facilities, including

Nicholas Saller, Cedar Village’s assistant director of rehabilitation and outpatient manager, demonstrates a Biodex balance trainer for Stacey Blaesser, a trainer at the Mayerson JCC. The Biodex balance trainer is located at the Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center at the Mayerson JCC.

swimming pools, indoor track, gym, weight room and exercise machines. The pool complex contains a “lazy river,” which is a shallow pool with a slow-moving current, and a warm water pool. Both have rehabilitation benefits.

Cedar Village and the Mayerson

JCC dedicated the new space with open houses on Feb. 5 and 6. With about 80 people attending, the rabbis for each institution led a ceremony affixing a mezuzah to the doorpost of the new room. A mezuzah is a decorative case containing sacred parchment from the

Torah, part of the Old Testament, used to bless a room and a home.

The involvement of Rabbi Gerry Walter for Cedar Village and Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee for the JCC symbolized the new partnership between the organizations they represent.

Rabbi Walter called the physical therapy room a “home for healing, a home for health and a home for happiness.”

Marc Fisher, interim executive director of the Mayerson JCC, said the new rehab program will bring more people to the JCC who will want to use its other services.

“The biggest thing I worry about is that this room will get too busy, too fast,” he joked. For now, the room has two treatment tables and one full-time physical therapist.

The Cedar Village Rehabilitation Center at the Mayerson JCC was made possible, in part, through the generosity of the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati.

Michael R. Oestreicher, president of the Foundation, said the Foundation has urged the agencies in which it invests to think about how the Foundation can support broad community initiatives and work collaboratively with other agencies. That’s what Cedar Village and the JCC have done with the new rehab center, he said.

Nicholas Saller, Cedar Village’s assistant director of rehabilitation and outpatient manager, will be onsite fulltime at the JCC to provide physical therapy services.

Saller, who has six years of experience as a physical therapist, is certified by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy. He has a master’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Missouri.

He has extended continuing education in aquatic therapy and spine rehabilitation as well as shoulder and knee injuries. And he is fluent in Spanish.

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WONDERFUL WEDDINGS 2013 S PECIAL S ECTION If your business/organization wants to reach the greater Cincinnati Jewish community regarding weddings, this is the issue to do it!

• Bands/DJs • Banquet Halls • Bridal Shops • Caterers • Event Rentals • Florists • Photographers To advertise, contact Ted Deutsch at 621-3145 or publisher@americanisraelite.com Deadline is March 1st Publishes on March 7th

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Wise Temple presents a private tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls As part of the Wise Temple Sunday Series, Wise Temple members will have a private guided tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Cincinnati Museum Center on Sunday, Feb. 17. Dr. Nili S. Fox, director of the School of Graduate Studies at HUC-JIR and director of the Archaeology Center of the Skirball Museum, will guide this

private tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Considered among the world’s greatest archaeological discoveries, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain the oldest known copies of the Hebrew Bible and the ancient handwritten texts of the words that shaped the future of the Western world. These scrolls were discovered in 1947 when a shepherd stumbled upon

ancient scrolls hidden in a cave along the shore of the Dead Sea. The scrolls had not been seen for 2,000 years and include the earliest Biblical texts ever discovered. The Wise Temple Sunday Series is part of its Eitz Chayim (Adult Learning) programs focused on a kaleidoscope of Jewish ideas, knowledge and wisdom.

J Spa offers couples massages in February The J Spa at the Mayerson JCC is the place to heal your body and refresh your spirit. In addition to the wide array of body treatments and massages the J Spa offers, there are two February Sweetheart Specials that will help keep the fun in your relationship: Couples Massage and a J Spa Massage Workshop on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. Advance registration is required for both specials.

Couples can learn how to relieve stress and relax their partner’s muscles in the Massage Workshop. This two-hour group workshop teaches partners basic

massage relaxation techniques and is a fun activity to do with other couples, too.

“I think everyone enjoyed the Couples Massage Workshop as much as we did—the room was full of energy and laughter, and I heard very positive comments from several people afterward. The massage therapists made it so much fun!” said Cynthia Rosen, a past J Spa Massage Workshop participant.

Couples massage is a great way to spend time and relax with your sweetie or friend. You will enjoy an hour long massage, in the same room, by two licensed massage

therapists. Both packages make a great gift and all J Spa services are open to the public. J Members receive discounted rates.

Looking for something different? The J Spa recently added new Signature Services to their menu.

New services include the Signature Foot Therapy: This service is performed by a licensed massage therapist and is the ultimate pampering to anyone’s tired or sore feet. This 30 minute massage includes exfoliating the feet with sugar and nutrient-rich oils, followed by a personalized aromatherapy treatment, and finally a hot stone massage.

Ohav Shalom and NHS rockin’ out to ‘Schmaltz… The Musical’ Greasers. Poodle Skirts. 50s Rock‘n Roll. Hot Rods. Must be “Schmaltz…The Musical,” a Purim-based take-off on Grease, the highly popular 1978 film.

Although the joint production between Congregation Ohav Shalom and Northern Hills Synagogue wasn’t able to sign John Travolta or Olivia Newton-John to recreate their iconic roles, the two synagogues have a wonderful array of talent to put their distinctive stamp on this rollicking play.

Taking place on Feb. 23 at Congregation Ohav Shalom, this one night only event falls on Purim. The evening starts at 7:15 p.m. for the Maariv service, followed by the Megillah reading.

Afterward, everyone will adjourn to the Social Hall for a 50sinspired dinner, including homemade hamentashen for dessert.

And then the play begins, which tells the story of Purim loosely linked to the music from Grease.

Chava Vidal, programming chairperson for Congregation Ohav Shalom, and the play’s director, says, “‘Schmaltz’ is an original 50s style Yiddish interpretation of Purim. Instead of characters such as Danny the greaser, and Sandy, our play has Esther and Haman.”

The cast of “Schmaltz... The Musical.” (Front row) Hank Lerer, Scott Aronoff, Terry Brodof; (Second) Ed Schulman, Barry Joffe, Robyn Duvall, Gale Goldner, Melanie Joffe; (Third) Hank Stern, Barry Wolfson, Kathy Hart; (Not pictured) Linda Berger, Stephen Berger, Claire Lee, Dan Franklin, Randy Slovin, and Chava Vidal (director)

The original script was created by Chaya Vidal, mother of Chava. “Schmaltz” is one of several original musicals Chaya has written for various synagogues across the country.

There are 16 members of the cast, representing members of both synagogues, including Scott

Aronoff, Linda Berger, Stephen Berger, Terry Brodof, Robyn Duvall, Dan Franklin, Gale Goldner, Kathy Hart, Barry Joffe, Melanie Joffe, Claire Lee, Hank Lerer, Ed Schulman, Randy Slovin, Hank Stern and Barry Wolfson.

Fifties-styled attire is encouraged. There is a fee for the dinner.

JH Israel is hosting its First Annual Cincinnati Foundation Dinner on Tuesday, February 19th at the Manor House.

For more details on the event and learn how you can participate, visit our website. www.jhisrael.com/events

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Purim Palooza Carnival comes to Adath Israel The community is invited to celebrate Purim at Adath Israel, beginning Saturday evening, Feb. 23, at 6 p.m. Many Adath Israel teens will participate in the lively congregational Megillah reading, as a slideshow with riddles and jokes plays in the background. A local grocery store has once again donated mac and cheese boxes to be used

as noisemakers, in addition to the usual greggars. They will be available in the main lobby. (After the Megillah reading, these boxes will be donated to the Free Store Food Bank.) Once the reading concludes, the festivities will continue with dancing, food and entertainment.

There will be a magician, juggling stilt-walker and a balloon artist.

The fun continues the very next day. If you missed the Megillah reading the night before you can catch it at Sunday morning services, which begin at 8:45 a.m. The giant Purim Carnival takes place on Sunday, Feb. 24, from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. This year’s carnival will be bigger and better than ever, with new games and prizes. All ages are

welcome: there will be entertainment and games for babies, kids, teens and adults. The carnival will end with a raffle and special staff contests. It’s going to be the party of the year. If you have any questions about the Purim festivities at Adath Israel, please contact Mollie Newman, the coordinator of youth and family programs.

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The family fun unfolds at Once Upon a Purim

THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 Phone: (513) 621-3145 Fax: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISAAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher

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and is open to young families with children, ages 12 and under, in which at least one parent is Jewish.

Siblings and grandparents are always welcome. The event includes the live stage performances, unlimited carnival tickets, a free family portrait, snacks and more.

Maccabees at the Children’s Museum, Dream Job-A-Rama Kids’ Career Fair, the Potato Pancake Arty Party, Circus Sundae, Superhero Hanukkah, the Pirate and Princess Party, Galaxy Glo-Glo and so much more!

Shalom Family events are always

JORY EDLIN MICHAEL SAWAN Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager e Oldest Eng Th

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“This event offers a great way for young families, especially those who aren’t affiliated with a congregation, to take part in some type of communal Purim festivity.”

free and offer a great way for parents and children to spend quality time together. And the best part is, there are plenty of opportunities for grownups to socialize and get to know one another while their kids work the wiggles out in a fun and safe environment!

In addition to hosting events at some of the most family-friendly venues in town, Shalom Family offers Sensory Sunday: Stories, Songs and Fun for You and Your Little One – private interactive playgroups, offered twice a month at the Gymboree in Mason. Shalom Family also offers Shalom Baby Starter Kits, a series of free gifts, sent three times throughout the year right to the recipient’s front door. They contain gifts and goodies for parents and babies, too, such as a “Tushy Towelettes To Go” container, a Baby’s First Jewish Holiday board book, a fork and spoon set, a hard bound copy of the popular book Jewish Family & Life, a Schlep Bag, as well as ritual items and lots of other surprises.

For more information or to RSVP for the Once Upon a Purim event please consult the Community Directory in this issue for Shalom Family or the JCC’s contact information.

Est. 1854

Past Purim parties have included the Wild West Purim Fest, Purim Bash, Hamentaschen Hip Hop and Hocus Pocus Purim. In addition, Shalom Family puts on some of the biggest events for young families in the Jewish community all throughout the year.

Some have included Mini

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before the main performance, there will be a brief film produced by the JCCilly Players which will warm up the audience with a whimsical re-enactment of the story of Purim in a fun and silly fairytale style.

Once Upon a Purim is free with advance reservations by Feb. 22

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Purim family fun from a past year.

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It will be an engaging afternoon of “Happily Ever After” for young families in the Jewish community when Shalom Family and the Mayerson JCC present Once Upon a Purim on Sunday, Feb. 24 from 3-5 p.m. at the Mayerson JCC, featuring a live stage production of the classic tale, Rumpelstiltskin, presented by ArtReach, a division of The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. Then, in traditional fairytale fashion, something magical will happen…

Before you can say “bibbidi, bobbidi, boo,” an entire Purim carnival will materialize out of nowhere – featuring lots of fun games and prizes galore, plus bounce houses, face painters, balloon sculptures, a free family storybook photo session, including a portrait to take home, storytelling with the PJ Library, and of course, fruit and chocolate filled hamentaschen for all guests to ensure a very sweet and happy ending to a perfect day!

For the fifth year in a row Shalom Family, an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation, has partnered with the Mayerson JCC to put on a community-wide Purim party with all of the trimmings!

“Hundreds of families are expected to attend this annual event which has become one of our most popular programs of the year,” says Julie Robenson, Shalom Family’s event coordinator. “While the theme is different every time, guests can count on the same level of fun for everyone, which always includes lots of hands on activities for the kids, plus plenty of opportunities for parents to visit with one another in a great, family-friendly atmosphere.”

“This event offers a great way for young families, especially those who aren’t affiliated with a congregation, to take part in some type of communal Purim festivity,” says Rabbi Shena Potter Jaffee, director of Jewish Life at the Mayerson JCC. “It’s so much fun to see kids – and people of all ages – dressed in costumes and celebrating together. It’s really an event not to be missed.”

Children are encouraged to dress up as their favorite Purim character or in any costume of their choice. As a special treat

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013 4 ADAR 5773 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 5:57 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 6:58 PM

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The views and opinions expressed by the columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

Meet Brian Bendis, the man who killed Spiderman

By Michael Orbach Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) – Spiderman heroically dispatched countless foes since he arrived on the scene in 1962.

Nearly a half-century later, Brian Michael Bendis managed to kill him.

In 2000, Bendis was hired to write Ultimate Spiderman, a modern-day retelling of the classic Spiderman story. More than 10 years, 160 issues and several blockbuster Hollywood adaptations later, Bendis did the unthinkable, killing off the superhero’s famous alter ego, Peter Parker, and replacing him with a halfblack, half-Hispanic 13-year-old named Miles Morales.

The change received national attention. Glenn Beck said Morales looked like President Barack Obama – and not in a good way. Lou Dobbs didn’t like the change either, prompting Jon Stewart to quip that Morales represented Dobbs’ worst nightmare: “a Latino that can climb walls.” But Bendis is unrepentant.

“Marvel is a representation of the real world,” Bendis explained from his home in Portland, Ore. “The Marvel Universe takes place in New York. Miles lives in Brooklyn – it’s actually Brooklyn.

That’s a huge difference going back to my time as a crime writer.

The city becomes a character you’re writing about.”

Bendis, 45, may be the most important comic book writer working today. He helped relaunch the Daredevil, Spiderman and the Avengers franchises, and

Courtesy of Luigi Novi/Creative Commons

“Ultimate Spider-Man” writer Brian Bendis at a book signing at a comic book shop in New York City, 2010.

his titles typically sell more than 100,000 copies, making him among the most popular comic book writers in the world.

“Brian is a unique and important voice in modern comics,” said Danny Fingeroth, a longtime Marvel editor and the author of “The Stan Lee Universe.” “He displays a profound understanding of, and respect for, the histories of the characters and their universe, but understands that they have to be updated for a modern readership.”

Raised by a single mother in Cleveland, Bendis attended an Orthodox day school and discovered comic books as an adolescent.

“I studied them like the Torah,” he said. “I memorized the ads. At 5, I literally stood on the sofa and said ‘I will be the artist on Spiderman.’”

Like others drawn to stories of caped crusaders and mega-muscled heroes, Bendis was searching

Congress members dish on the Middle East at annual breakfast

By Maxine Dovere JointMedia News Service NEW YORK – Despite Nor’easter Nemo battering the region some 24 hours earlier, nearly 300 Jewish and community leaders attended the Legislative Breakfast hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY) on Sunday, an event that has a permanent place on calendars of the area’s Congress members each winter.

Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ido Aharoni, kicked off a speaker list that tackled a broad range of issues by commenting on the “Arab Spring,” saying, “We think we are looking at a deep, serious, historical series of events.”

He noted that “regional turmoil, instability, and the risks of political Islam” showed the “linkage argument” to be false.”

“We know that there were tens of active national, religious, and tribal conflicts. The [IsraeliPalestinian] situation is not the only conflict, not the only key to events.” While Israel supports democratic development, Aharoni said, “democracy is more than the ability to have elections: it is about the ability of people to internalize the values of the democratic system… democracies do not fight one another… the real danger is to allow terrorist organizations to exploit and take over the system.”

Aharoni emphasized the urgency of preventing Iran from achieving nuclear capability.

“Israel is not the top of their agenda; their agenda is primarily regional,” he said. “If Iran gets nuclear capacity, it would spark a regional nuclear arms race.” He BREAKFAST on page 21

for a stand-in for his absentee father. Stan Lee, the Jewish cocreator of Spiderman and other comic book heroes, became something of a father figure for him.

But the rabbis who taught him as a child weren’t too fond of Bendis’ hobby, fearing that his penchant for drawing men in tights indicated he might be gay.

“I would just start drawing without thinking and [suddenly] it’s a bunch of naked guys and I’d get sent home,” Bendis said.

After high school, Bendis attended the Cleveland Institute of Art. An independent comic book publisher picked up his final thesis and published it. After graduation, he continued working on comic books but supported himself doing freelance illustration and caricatures at bar and bat mitzvahs.

“It’s the lowest form of human existence – and I worked at McDonald’s,” he said.

Through the 1990s, Bendis hustled his work on the road with fellow independent comic book creators. Those years were somewhat of a golden age for the independent comic scene, producing a bevy of talented, original creators.

But the period was financially rough for Bendis and his wife, Alisa, whom he met while doing a freelance assignment for the Hillel Foundation.

Even his successes didn’t change the basic financial equation. The day after his work on the crime comic JINX won an Eisner Award, the comic book equivalent of an Oscar, he was back at a bar mitzvah drawing caricatures.

Bendis’ explosion on the independent comic book scene coin-

cided with a shakeup at Marvel Comics, the largest comic book publisher in the world. A new president and editor in chief wanted a fresh voice for the company.

Joe Quesada, then the editor in chief, called Bendis in 2000 and told him that he wanted to bring

him to Marvel.

“I asked, ‘What do you need an artist for?’” Bendis recalled.

After what Bendis describes as a long “dead” silence, Quesada finally answered, “You know your art isn’t that good, but you’re an amazing writer.”

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Obama will visit Israel for first time as president this spring

By Jacob Kamaras JointMedia News Service White House officials said last week that President Barack Obama, whose relationship with Israel routinely garners attention due to his reported tension with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to visit the Jewish state this spring.

A specific date for Obama’s trip, which will also include Jordan, was not announced. Obama visited Israel when he ran for president in 2008, but this will be his first trip while in office. He decided to take this trip following a Jan. 28 phone conversation with Netanyahu, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

“The start of the president’s second term and the formation of a new Israeli government offer the opportunity to reaffirm the deep and enduring bonds between the United States and Israel and to discuss the way forward on a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including Iran and Syria,” National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said the leaders “discussed the president visiting Israel after a new government is established, and the two agreed that such a visit would be an important opportunity

Courtesy of the White House

President Barack Obama (far right) with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak – both checking their watches – in September 2010 at the White House.

to emphasize the friendship and strong partnership between Israel and the United States,” according to Israel Hayom. Meanwhile, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) said in a statement that it was “thrilled to learn” of Obama’s plans.

“We are proud of the President’s unprecedentedly pro-Israel record and this upcoming trip will provide President Obama with yet another opportunity to affirm the unbreakable bond between the U.S. and Israel,” NJDC Chair Marc R. Stanley said.

But Richard Baehr – chief political correspondent for American Thinker – wasn’t as optimistic about what will come of Obama’s visit. He told JNS, “Obama and Netanyahu have met several times before, never with great warmth or accomplishment.”

Baehr noted the progress achieved

by Iran on its nuclear program during Obama’s first term, when the president did not visit Israel.

“It took four years for the president to get to Israel and during that time Iran has moved that much closer to becoming the world’s

10th nation with nuclear weapons,” Baehr wrote in an email. “With reports of another [U.S.] diplomatic initiative towards Iran in the works, [the U.S. and Israel] need to coordinate their responses once the diplomatic track fails, as it inevitably will. Diplomacy for Iran has always meant wasting time while its centrifuges spin.”

The Obama administration has repeatedly stressed that there remains time for diplomacy and sanctions to solve the Iranian nuclear issue. Vice President Joe Biden reiterated the administration’s desire for direct talks with Iran on Feb. 2 at an international security conference in Munich, saying: “We have made it clear at the outset that we would be prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership, we would not make it a secret that we were doing that, [and] we would let our partners know if that occasion presented itself.”

Obama and Netanyahu have disagreed on setting a “red line” that, if crossed, would prompt U.S. military action against Iran over its nuclear program – Obama has thus far resisted Netanyahu’s calls for a red line, calling those calls “noise” in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” last year. Can the two leaders find common ground on the issue when Obama

Jewish teen turns tragedy into advocacy, shares a roundtable with the president

By Beth Kissileff JointMedia News Service On Yom Kippur, Sept. 26, 2012, Sami Rahamim was with his father Reuven at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, Minn. On Feb. 4, 2013, 17-yearold Sami opened a roundtable discussion at the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations Center meeting with President Barack Obama.

In between? Reuven Rahamim was shot the day after Yom Kippur 2012 at the business he owned and created, Accent Signage Systems, and killed along with five others.

The personal tragedy of experiencing the sudden violent death of his father galvanized Sami Rahamim to become a nationally relevant activist for changing gun control laws, hence his seat alongside Obama (to be precise, two seats away) at the Minnesota roundtable on gun violence.

Rahamim, whose email messages contain the tagline “Gun Violence Prevention Advocate,” has the goal “to be known for advocacy, not for the unfortunate circumstance that put me here,” he says in an interview with JNS. He is aware that he has experienced “not only grief but trauma,” and

Courtesy of Sami Rahamim

Sami Rahamim with his late father, Reuven, who was fatally shot on Sept. 27, 2012.

adds, “I can’t overstate how different you become after something like this.”

The guest of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) at Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Rahamim speaks with pride of the Jewish institutions that have contributed to his growth, from his preschool, the Aleph School at Beth El (a Conservative synagogue), to the Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School, AIPAC (the American

Israel Public Affairs Committee), and his family. He says the morning minyan at Beth El has kept him going during these trying times.

“I don’t know where I’d be without that minyan,” he tells JNS. “I could not do the stuff I do without them.”

Rahamim values not just his own community, but is grateful to “Judaism as a whole by design, the whole concept of saying

Kaddish, getting up, saying services before sunrise.” He is glad that being at minyan at 7 a.m. each day means he is “not wallowing around house, in bed.

“It is an obligation that you have to fulfill, the little nudge that many people need to figure out how to move on,” he says.

Regarding his current work, which includes speaking at organizations around Minneapolis and giving testimony to legislators, he says, “Faith for me, particularly, is extremely important not only in the grieving process but in a process that has motivated me to become so politically involved.”

He had gone with his father, a native Israeli passionately committed to Israel advocacy, to the AIPAC national conventions in March 2011 and 2012, and before his father’s death had been invited to the teen AIPAC convention at the end of October 2012.

Rahamim’s main concern about attending AIPAC after his father’s passing was the availability of a minyan so he could to say the Kaddish prayer. AIPAC staffers connected him with Rabbi Uri Pilichowski, who runs a South Florida pro-Israel teen group, and Rahamim davened with them three times a day.

visits Israel? The need for that outcome is there, Baehr wrote.

“There is a special need for [U.S.-Israel] coordination on Iran, especially if sabotage or military action against Iran is a possible option, as it certainly is at least for Israel,” he wrote.

In addition to praising Obama’s plans, NJDC’s Stanley noted new Secretary of State John Kerry’s plans to visit Israel in March. He commended both Kerry and Obama “for placing Israel and its security needs at the top of the Administration’s foreign policy agenda for President Obama’s second term.”

The visits by Kerry and Obama will cast some spotlight on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been stalled, and raise the question of what role the Obama administration might take in that process during his second term. But the focus should remain Iran, Baehr told JNS. “The president should know by now that Israel is focused on the Iranian nuclear program, not on meaningless symbolic gestures to give the appearance that there is a peace process underway with the Palestinians,” he wrote. “The 20 years since Oslo have revealed that the Palestinians concede nothing on any issue and still expect in the end that Israel will disappear.”

National Briefs Ehud Barak coming to Washington for consultations WASHINGTON (JTA) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is traveling to Washington to meet with top defense officials.

Barak, who announced in November that he was retiring from politics and did not run in the January elections, “will meet with senior administration officials and the heads of the intelligence and defense establishments,” according to an announcement Monday by Israel’s government press office.

In a visit to Washington in December, Barak at a news conference with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made clear that he thought it would be his last as defense minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was reelected with a bare majority on Jan. 22, is struggling to cobble together a governing coalition.

Haaretz reported that Israel’s National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror and Netanyahu special envoy Isaac Molho are scheduled to visit Washington later this week as part of the advance team preparing for President Obama’s trip to Israel next month.

NATIONAL • 7

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

Seeking Kin: Sofia Greenberg searches for her American cousins

By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Courtesy of Yoel Ben-Avraham/Creative Commons

These Israelis are following the edict for Purim revelry.

A Purim directive: Laugh it up!

By Dasee Berkowitz Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) – Little kids will laugh at anything. The simplest knock-knock joke or a tickle fest – even the threat of one – can so easily end in hysterics.

They laugh because they are surprised by something unexpected in a world they are constantly discovering.

If only that kind of laughter came as easily as we got older.

While the laughter of childhood is characterized by the element of surprise, the laughter in adulthood becomes a way of managing stress (filmmakers know this well and skillfully employ any element of comic relief during an action thriller to release some of the tension). Laughter becomes a coping mechanism to get us through difficult times.

Paradoxically, many of us are so loaded down with responsibility and worry that we don’t indulge often enough in this emotional and physical release.

It’s a good thing Purim is nearly here.

Purim is a holiday that isn’t ripe with laws and ritual obligations save for reading the Megillah, giving mishloach manot (gift packages) to friends, matanot l’evyonim (gifts to the poor) and having a festive meal. However, there is one directive for observance that is very clear: “they (The Jews) should make [Adar 14 and 15] days of feasting and joy” (Scroll of Esther 9:22).

We each might experience this commandment on a different level. For 5-year-olds, putting on funny costumes, enjoying bobbing for candied apples at the synagogue carnival and seeing the rabbi dressed as a superhero evokes one kind of joy. For most grown-ups, joy and laughter may be an expression of a different

kind. While we appreciate the dark comedy of the Megillah, our laughter also is a collective sigh of relief in having averted near annihilation unscathed.

The storyline of Purim, which this year falls on the evening of Feb. 23, is a dramatic comedy of errors and grand gestures with over-the-top reactions. It is so different in content and style than nearly every other book of the Bible that scholars speculate about the veracity of the story altogether. Drunken parties, political posturing and sexual innuendos weave their way throughout the narrative.

The Megillah begins with a raucous party hosted by King Achashveros, who demands that his wife, Vashti, appears (only! as commentators point out) in her crown. After refusing to appear naked, she is told to never appear before the king again. After his “wise” counselors offer advice, an edict is sent out across the provinces demanding that all wives respect their husbands’ every demand. Not sure what all the wives had to say about that!

It is a story about reversals.

The Megillah has Mordechai, the Jewish hero who refuses to bow down to Haman. The act of disobedience ignites the ire of Haman, the recently promoted chief adviser to the king. Haman, in turn, calls for the destruction of all Jewish people.

Esther, who until this point has hidden her identity, then reveals that she also is a member of the doomed people and calls on Achashveros to punish Haman.

Achashveros does by bestowing all the raiments and honors that were reserved for Haman to Mordechai. Further, the very gallows that Haman had ordered to be built for the hanging of Mordechai are the ones on which Haman meets his end.

BALTIMORE (JTA) – If only she had a photograph, a location, names – Sofia Greenberg wants to locate American relatives she’s never met.

Greenberg, 61, who lives in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem, hopes to find cousins descended from Morris Greenberg, the brother of her grandfather, Berl. Morris, then called Mordechai, left the family’s home in Novaya Ushitsa, a village in the Kamenets-Podolski region of present-day Ukraine, in 1905 for America. Sofia calculates his birth at 1884 and remembers her late father saying that Morris, once in the United States, owned an auto parts store that made him wealthy, married a Romanian Jewish woman and produced a large family. The father of Morris and Berl – and their other siblings, including at least one brother – was named Mechel.

Where Morris settled, she doesn’t know – only that the locality’s name ended in “wood.”

“I’d like to see them, get to know them,” Greenberg said of her American cousins. Perhaps they have photographs to share or know the name of Berl’s first wife, who died before Sofia was born.

The decades-long transatlantic correspondence between Morris and Berl ended with the Holocaust. Berl Greenberg; his second wife, Rosa; her daughter Riva; and his grandson Shimon fled the Nazis and hid.

When he returned to his house after the war, someone else lived there, so he couldn’t retrieve any correspondence and family photographs. Berl, also known as Baruch and Berko, thus lost touch with his brother.

Many of the Greenbergs served in the Soviet military and avoided

Courtesy Sofia Greenberg

Sofia Greenberg, shown in 1952 perched on the lap of her grandfather, Berl, hopes to find her American cousins. Also pictured are her parents, Moshe-Shevach and Rivkah-Leah Greenberg; her brother Arkadi and her cousin Efraim Vuller, standing behind Berl.

the Nazis’ clutches, but the family suffered losses, too. Moshe-Shevach Greenberg, Sofia’s father, was away from 1939 through 1945; she even has a photograph showing him posing at the Reichstag following the defeat of Nazi Germany. MosheShevach’s brother, Maor, who was Shimon’s father, also served then in the military and would die postWorld War II, while their half-brother, Fishel, was killed in battle.

Their sister, also named Riva, was a military dentist who committed suicide after the war. Another sister, Gittel, died after being struck by a train or trolley before the war.

Their stepsister, Rachel, refused to go into hiding with the others and remained in Novaya Ushitsa with her husband; both were killed in the Holocaust.

Of the four who escaped initially, Rosa and Shimon were later captured and killed. Berl and Riva

somehow got away and hid again.

After emigrating from Moscow to Israel in 1990, Sofia Greenberg researched her family at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust institute. She was put in touch with Riva Tatarskaya, her father’s longlost stepsister, who moved to Israel in the early 1990s. Sofia also met Riva’s son, Arkadi, and his daughter and two granddaughters. Riva, now 95, has another son, Boris, a cardiologist in St. Petersburg, Russia.

They are Greenberg’s only paternal relatives, along with her brother, Arkadi, who lives in Israel. But no one on her mother’s side survived the Holocaust, she thinks. Indeed, shortly before moving to Israel, Greenberg asked her mother, RivkaLeah, about a white streak in her hair. Rivka-Leah (who died in 1998) explained that while serving during SEEKING on page 22

8 • NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL

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Synagogues across the country swimming in old prayer books

By Chavie Lieber Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK – After years of watching synagogue members die or move away, the Sephardic Jewish Center of Canarsie made the difficult decision to downsize.

The 50-year-old Brooklyn synagogue had been a thriving center for the area’s Sephardim. But after accepting that it could no longer pull together enough money to cover expenses, let alone muster the 10 men necessary for daily prayer, the synagogue disposed of most of its belongings and began holding Shabbat services in a nearby Ashkenazi congregation.

But what was the center to do with its prayer books? It owned several hundred volumes in the Spanish-Portuguese liturgical style – some tattered, some like new and some belonging to older members that may have had significant worth.

“We donated some to a local shul, but we had to get rid of a lot of them and bury them,” Rabbi Myron Rakowitz told JTA. “It was difficult because we didn’t just want to throw them out or claim them unusable. We want other people to use them, to give them purpose when we no longer can.”

What to do with the old books – it’s a growing problem for synagogues across the United States.

Courtesy of Adam Jones/Creative Commons

Synagogues that upgrade to newer editions of prayer books often have to bury the old ones.

In the last six years, the three major American Jewish denominations have released new prayer books. More than 1,500 synagogues have purchased the books, in some cases making older versions obsolete.

More than 700 congregations have bought copies of the Reform movement’s new Mishkan T’Filah, and hundreds more are expected to buy. The Conservative movement’s new High Holy Days prayer book, the Lev Shalem Mahzor, has sold nearly 260,000 copies to some 500 congregations since its 2010 release. And over 200,000 copies of the Koren siddur released in 2009 have been purchased by more than 300 Orthodox synagogues.

The problem isn’t going away.

The Reform movement is working

on a new High Holy Days prayer book, or machzor, that it expects to release in 2015.

According to Jewish tradition, prayer books are holy and cannot just be thrown out. Traditionally, they must be placed in a geniza, a repository for holy books awaiting burial. It’s the only religiously acceptable way to dispose of them.

“This problem is just rampant because now is the greatest time for creativity in writing new prayers and liturgy, and it’s going to get worse when the new machzor comes out,” said Rabbi Elaine Zecher of Boston, who is leading a committee working on the new Reform movement prayer book.

“But our solution to bury them shouldn’t be looked at negatively.

This is an intentional disposal, not a mindless disposal.”

Some synagogues have sought alternatives to the burial option.

Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego takes its old books and those of several nearby congregations, and mails them to Jewish Prisoner Services International in Seattle. Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Calif., sent their old prayer books to Hillel chapters throughout the state two years ago when it bought new machzors.

But finding a new home for all the leftover books, some of them decades old, can be difficult.

Cavs’ Omri Casspi courting his opportunity to contribute

By Hillel Kuttler Jewish Telegraphic Agency BALTIMORE – Even as he sits on the Cleveland Cavaliers bench, watching yet another game proceed without him, Omri Casspi is working to improve.

He studies his teammates and his opponents, focusing on the player he’d likely be defending if he were on the court. Casspi uses the time to prepare for whenever he is summoned to participate – now or the next game or the one after.

For Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the NBA, his fourth season in the elite league for pro hoopsters has been the most trying. The 6-foot, 9-inch forward doesn’t play much – and he’s not sure why.

Casspi believes he’s practicing as hard, working as diligently and is as devoted to his sport as when the Sacramento Kings drafted him in the first round in 2009. And the Cavs’ front office doesn’t disagree.

Last month, when Casspi rarely left the bench, Yahoo!

Sports reported that Casspi’s agents had requested a trade from the Cavs. But in an interview with JTA, Casspi said he had never made such a request.

“It’s not anything that has to do with me, so I have no comment,” said Casspi, a native of Yavne, a city in central Israel of some 33,000 people.

At 16-35 following a loss on Saturday night, the Cavs own the fourth-worst record in the National Basketball Association.

But after a disastrous start they have stabilized, going 11-12 in their last 23 games. Beginning in late January, they even won four of six, including a victory Feb. 2 over the Oklahoma City Thunder, which had the second-best record in the league and reached the NBA finals last season.

But Casspi contributed little to the Cavs’ improvement, playing just 16 minutes and totaling two points in home wins over Boston and Milwaukee. And he didn’t leave the bench against the Thunder or in the Cavaliers’ thrilling Jan. 26 victory at Toronto on guard Kyrie Irving’s long three-

pointer with seconds remaining.

“Last time I saw you, I was flying,” Casspi, 24, told a reporter, referring to an interview in November.

That was when Casspi played in 14 consecutive games, averaging nearly 16 minutes per appearance. He even scored 15 points in Cleveland’s two-point road loss against the defending champion Miami Heat. But the Cavs lost 11 of the next 14, and Casspi soon found himself again planted firmly on the bench, which is where he had been early in the season.

It was an unusual spot for a player who entered the league with such fanfare, Jewish fans turning out en masse at many games carrying Israeli flags and cheering his name.

In two seasons with Sacramento, Casspi had started 58 of the 148 games in which he played and averaged 9.5 points per game. He was traded to Cleveland for the 2011-12 season, switching one last-place team for another.

CASSPI on page 22

Courtesy of the Combat Genocide Association

Darfurian, Jews and Armenians join together on the Armenian genocide memorial day.

Kibbutzim in Africa?

By Rafael Medoff JointMedia News Service They may not wear those classic blue “kibbutznik hats,” but some Ethiopians, Sudanese, and Eritreans may soon be establishing Israeli-style communes in eastern Africa.

It’s part of an innovative project launched by young Israelis to deal with the problem of the tens of thousands of African refugees who have slipped across the Egypt-Israel border during the past several years.

An estimated 60,000 refugees and migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, and other African countries have made the hazardous journey across the Sinai desert and into Israel since 2006. Many have been kidnapped and tortured for ransom by Bedouin Arabs in the Sinai. There have also been incidents in which Egyptian border police shot at the migrants. Refugee activists estimate that several hundred have been shot dead by the Egyptians, and several thousand have been murdered by members of the “Rashida” Bedouin tribe.

“For a long time, the Israeli government had no policy for dealing with this problem,” Pesach Houspeter, 48, chairman of Dror Israel, an affiliate of the Labor Zionist youth movement, explained in an interview with JNS. “So the police would take them from the border area, bring them to a park in a slum area of southern Tel Aviv, and dump them there.”

The large number of African refugees and migrants living in dense South Tel Aviv soon led to conflicts with local residents.

Some refugees were arrested for burglaries and, in several instances, sexual assaults on Israeli women. These incidents led, in turn, to attacks on Africans by resentful locals.

“It was a terrible situation, a guaranteed recipe for tension,” Houspeter says. “Two impoverished populations, from vastly dif-

ferent cultures, were suddenly pushed together, forced to compete for the same turf in a neighborhood with dwindling resources. And before long, some politicians were exploiting the situation for their own interests.”

A major part of the problem is that the Israeli government does not have a specific law for dealing with non-Jewish would-be immigrants, including those seeking political asylum. Even genocide survivors from Darfur are not granted refugee status. Although Israel is a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, which requires it to grant haven to refugees from racial or religious persecution, it never previously had to deal with any significant number of asylum-seekers.

The most Israel had to deal with was a group of 66 Vietnamese “boat people,” who were admitted in 1977 by newlyelected Prime Minister Menachem Begin, as his first act in office.

Another 300 were admitted in 1978-1979.

The situation has changed dramatically in recent years, with refugees from the Darfur genocide fleeing Sudan, victims of various African civil wars seeking a haven, and famine and poverty in general causing many Africans to look for a better life elsewhere. At the same time, Israel’s expanding, modern economy and technological advances have made the Jewish State much more attractive to outsiders.

The fact that there are many different types of refugees has only complicated the situation for Israel. “No country is obligated to admit ‘economic refugees,’ but every country has an obligation to accept people who are fleeing from persecution. Unfortunately, the Israeli government has not done a careful job of distinguishing between the two,” Uriel Levy, 27, chairman of the Dror-affiliated Combat Genocide Association, told JNS.

INTERNATIONAL • 9

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

International Briefs

Iranian presidential candidate campaigns with new-age tactics in old-school country

By Sean Savage JointMedia News Service

Holland seeks EU heritage label for Nazi camp Westerbork THE HAGUE (JTA) – The Dutch government has asked the European Commission to recognize the Peace Palace and the former Nazi transit camp Westerbork as heritage sites.

The Peace Palace in The Hague, which houses the International Court of Justice, was opened 100 years ago “to prevent the kind of war to which the camp so painfully attests and must continue to do so,” the Council for Culture, a government advisory body, wrote in a recommendation to the Cabinet in December.

The Cabinet adopted the recommendation on Feb. 8 and requested the European Council to give the two locales the European Heritage Label – a designation reserved for “sites which have played a key role in the history and the building of the European Union,” according to the European Commission.

In total, nearly 100,000 Jews, or 70 percent of Holland’s preHolocaust Jewish population, were transported from Westerbork to Nazi extermination and concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt, according to Yad Vashem. The premises of the former Nazi camp have been made a national memorial.

Italian pop singer to skip song festival for Shabbat ROME (JTA) – The lead singer of an Italian pop group reportedly will skip a live performance at Italy’s most famous popular song festival because he observes Shabbat.

Singer Raiz (Gennaro Della Volpe), of the Neapolitan reggae-dub group Almamegretta, will not sing live on stage during Friday night’s broadcast of the annual San Remo song festival, according to the La Stampa newspaper. Instead, the newspaper reported, the group may perform without him or they will run a pre-recorded video.

La Stampa said Raiz converted to Judaism several years ago and is observant.

The San Remo festival, founded in 1951, is a combination song festival and song competition mixing concert performances with a competition for best new song. The five-day festival, broadcast on state-run RAI TV, begins Tuesday.

As a presidential candidate in Iran, Dr. Hooshang Amirahmadi believes the Islamic Republic should prioritize allaying its tension with Israel and the United States – not the kind of approach the world has been accustomed to seeing lately from a country whose leaders repeatedly vow to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

Amirahmadi, an IranianAmerican academic, told JNS that as president of Iran he would work towards ending this animosity and mutual distrust.

“This problem is not going to go away overnight, there are stages to this,” Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American academic, said of Iran’s relations with the U.S. and Israel in an interview with JNS. “Most important is communication, even countries at war communicate with each other. We need to bring together people on both sides, educators, experts, policy makers, to learn more about each other.”

Running on a reformist platform in a country with a reactionary government, Amirahmadi is using 21st-century tactics. On Feb. 6 he took to the popular social news website Reddit to participate in an AMA (Ask Me Anything), which allows users from around the world to pitch questions to the participant. Previous popular AMAs have included President Barack Obama, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Korean pop music sensation PSY, and former CBS News anchorman Dan Rather.

Iranian elections are slated for this June, when a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be chosen. In 2009, when Iran last held its election, widespread protests and violence broke out after many accused the government of voter fraud amid Ahmadinejad’s

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Iranians in Tehran protest the country's elections in June 2009, in which reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi was defeated. Four years later, the newest presidential candidate seeking reform in Iran is Dr. Hooshang Amirahmadi.

victory over reformist rival MirHossein Mousavi. The protests became known as the “Green Revolution.”

Amirahmadi was born in Talesh, Iran in 1947. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University in international development and is currently a professor at Rutgers University. He has spent many years in economic development, including experience working in impoverished rural areas in Iran. He is also the founder and president of the American-Iranian Council, a unique position that has allowed him to work closely with both prominent Western and Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Besides improving ties with the U.S. and Israel, Amirahmadi intends to fix Iran’s economy and ending its nuclear program if elected.

“First, U.S. and Iran relations… that conflict must be resolved for both nations. I want to pay a visit to the White House in the first 100 days in office, and shake Obama’s hand,” Amirahmadi wrote on Reddit.

“Second… I want to create 6 million jobs during my first term in office.”

When asked by a Reddit user how he would accomplish this, he elaborated by saying “by resolving the Iran-U.S. conflict, it would open Iran up to foreign invest-

ment… especially from wealthy Iranian expatriates.”

Amirahmadi also made it clear to Reddit users that he would end Iran’s nuclear program.

“I do not think Iran needs to have a nuclear weapon,” he wrote.

“However, under the NPT (nonproliferation treaty) Iran does have the right to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”

The candidate also made a point to differentiate himself from Ahmadinejad.

“Ahmadinejad increased tension between U.S. and Israel,” Amirahmadi wrote. “I will be the exact opposite. Ahmadinejad domestically has also been a dividing force; I will be a uniting force.

He isolated the Iranian economy; I will integrate Iran’s economy.”

When asked if he fears for his safety, considering Iran’s history of imprisoning and torturing reformists, Amirahmadi wrote “not really… I am running within the laws of the nation, I am a peaceful person… Our movement is 100 percent non-violence.”

Following his session on Reddit, Amirahmadi told JNS about his views on the rich history between the Jewish and Iranian people.

“The Jewish people have lived in Iran for over 3,000 years,” he said. “They have had positive relations for centuries. There is no historical animosity, no territorial dispute, no religious problem between Iran and Israel.”

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In SodaStream boycott push, Palestinians may be the victims

By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency MA’ALE ADUMIM, West Bank (JTA) – For proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, SodaStream would appear to be a straightforward target.

The Israeli company, which sells a popular kitchen gadget that turns tap water into carbonated drinks, has a large factory in a West Bank settlement. When SodaStream announced that it would run an ad during the Super Bowl, the pro-Palestinian boycott campaign against the company reached a fever pitch.

But for hundreds of Palestinians, SodaStream isn’t a target; it’s their employer.

On a recent afternoon, women wearing hijabs hurried to their shifts at the plant located in Ma’ale Adumim, a suburban settlement about 15 minutes west of Jerusalem. Some 500 West Bank Palestinians work at the site, in addition to 400 Arabs from eastern Jerusalem and a mix of 200 Israeli Jews and foreign workers, including refugees from Africa.

The Ma’ale Adumim factory has an on-site mosque and a synagogue, and Jewish and Arab employees share the same dining hall. SodaStream has two other facilities in Israel, in Ashkelon and the Galilee town of Mount Tabor.

Courtesy of Yossi Zamir/Flash90/JTA

The SodaStream headquarters in Ma’ale Adumim, Israel.

The Galilee factory employs several hundred Israeli Arabs.

“Everyone works together: Palestinians, Russians, Jews,” a Palestinian employee named Rasim at the Ma’ale Adumim site told JTA. Rasim has worked at the plant for four months and asked that his last name not be published.

“Everything is OK. I always work with Jews. Everyone works together, so of course we’re friends.”

For SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum, treating Arabs and Jews equally is a doctrine, not a convenience.

“We practice equality and full cooperation both on the job and off it,” Birnbaum told the Arab publication Al Monitor in a recent interview.

When he was invited to the Israeli president’s residence recently to receive an award, Birnbaum brought with him a few Palestinian employees and insisted on undergoing the same rigorous security checks to which they were subjected, Birnbaum told Al Monitor. When it came time for Birnbaum’s speech, he broke with protocol and publicly upbraided his host, President Shimon Peres, for the unequal treatment that his Palestinian workers had received, including strip searches down to their underwear.

“We are committed to continue serving as a bridge and to sowing hope,” Birnbaum said in his speech. “Who knows as well as

you, Mr. Peres, how important it is to remain optimistic that one day there will be peace?”

SodaStream’s case, some say, is one example of how boycotting an Israeli company doing business in the West Bank can end up hurting the very goals that boycott proponents say they are trying to achieve: Palestinian rights and Israel-Palestinian peace.

“The SodaStream situation is extremely complicated because it’s a clear case of where the owners are making real efforts to engage the Palestinian workers with fair wages and in management positions,” said Kenneth Bob, president of the liberal Zionist group Ameinu, which supports the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank but still opposes boycotts of settlement products. “At the same time, it does on some level strengthen the occupation because it’s a factory over the Green Line,” the boundary between Israel and the West Bank.

Advocates of BDS say supporting SodaStream amounts to supporting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and that boycotting the company is an effective way to support Palestinian national aspirations.

“In the absence of global and international political pressure for Israel to abide by international law, BDS hopes to use nonviolent

pressure to get Israel to stop the occupation,” said Kristin Szremski, a spokeswoman for the Interfaith Boycott Committee, a pro-BDS group. “The boycott of SodaStream felt like it was a great opportunity to raise awareness about settlements and thwart SodaStream’s effort to get into the American market.”

Szremski dismissed the argument that hurting SodaStream could hurt the livelihood of Palestinians, calling it “a way to obfuscate” the issue.

“The point is not just to make SodaStream go out of business,” Szremski told JTA. “Were there no settlements to begin with, Palestinians could be working their own lands. The fact that a worker goes to work every day does not indicate that it is a good thing.”

Another Palestinian worker at SodaStream’s West Bank site, who gave his name as Mmdoh, said politics don’t enter the workplace.

“We don’t get into that,” said Mmdoh, 34. “I feel normal. I don’t have conversations about it.”

For its part, SodaStream sees growth on the horizon. Its Super Bowl ad cost about $3.7 million, according to Ad Age, and won notice not just for its exploding bottles of brand-name sodas, but because a version of the ad highlighting digs at Pepsi and CocaCola was rejected by CBS, which broadcast the game.

Blowing 1,000 shofars in hopes of finding a mate

By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency AMUKAH, Israel – They walked up a tree-lined path through stony hills to a square, white building – men in black hats, beards and frock coats; in Tshirts and jeans; in sweaters, slacks and velvet kippahs.

They came by the hundreds – 19-year-olds looking for a match, 40-year-olds losing hope that they would ever find one, boys of 15 praying for the unmarried.

They had come for a special ceremony: They would blow 1,000 shofars, encircle the building seven times and recite penitential prayers led by a master of Jewish mysticism. They would scream and they would sing.

They had come to harness the power of a dead rabbi, Yonatan ben Uziel, a man they believed would intercede on their behalf in heaven, granting any Jew a match within the year – as long as they prayed at his tomb or paid a fee.

“This is the bringing-together of all the strengths in the world,” said Meir Levy, a 40-year-old bachelor who had come to join the prayer service on Jan. 27. “This is a very holy place.”

A man in a light blue robe, red velvet hat and paisley sash

Courtesy of Ben Sales/JTA

Men blowing shofars to help the unmarried find matches at the ceremony at the grave of Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel in a forest near Safed, Jan. 27, 2013.

approached the building’s courtyard. Volunteers distributed standard-issue shofars to anyone who thought he could blow. The cardboard boxes full of rams’ horns emptied as the men stood at the ready, waiting for the robed man – the kabbalah master Rabbi Yechiel Abuchatzeira – to begin the prayers.

“The Abuchatzeira family is a family with many miracles,” said Eliyahu Hazan, 32, as he waited for the rabbi. “Their reputation

speaks for itself. Everyone who goes to them gets results.”

Holding a microphone against his white beard, Abuchatzeira chanted, “Prayer, repentance and charity push away the harsh decree!” and waited as the hundreds of men repeated the words taken from the High Holy Days liturgy.

The scion of a family of famous Moroccan kabbalists, Abuchatzeira is the head of the Salvation in the Depths Foundation, which runs a

yeshiva located in nearby Safed.

The ceremony helps raise money for the yeshiva, and a man who answered the phone there recently explained the pricing structure: $36 per month for 18 months to have prayers recited at the tomb on someone’s behalf.

Some of the students there wake up daily at 4 a.m. to study Torah in Yonatan ben Uziel’s merit. Every Friday afternoon, they walk up the barely paved road through the forest to Amukah to welcome Shabbat with a service at the rabbi’s tomb. In return, they hope, he will intercede with God. But the ceremony on this Sunday afternoon was no ordinary service. It was, in the words of a website dedicated to the event, a “rare and unique” occasion in which the kabbalah masters would perform an “extraordinary corrective measure [to open] all the seven spiritual gates that block your luck and enable you to find your soul mate and get married THIS YEAR!” “Answer us, shield of David,” sang Abuchatzeira into the microphone, using a phrase usually reserved for the penitential prayers recited in the weeks leading up to Yom Kippur. “Answer us, He who answers at a time of mercy.

Answer us, God of the chariot.

Answer us, Yonatan ben Uziel.”

The men holding the shofars repeated every line, following the rabbi as he walked in a circle through the tomb. Together they chanted the 13 attributes of God’s mercy. Then, on command, they raised their shofars and blew. It was a dissonant sound, the noise of hundreds of untrained shofar blowers.

Some blew in staccato, others held the final note until they lost their breath. To the side, young boys in black hats, bused in from Safed, smirked at the proceedings.

They repeated the ceremony six more times, then moved on to prayers specifically directed toward finding a match. These prayers of the “brokenhearted” asked for “a sensible match able to give birth,” for a “woman of valor, fearing God, possessing intelligence, with good values and good deeds.”

Following the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish, the ceremony ended.

“It’s not that you understand what’s happening, but it’s the fact that you’re participating, that you’re ready to take part and do the right thing,” said Andre Levy, an anthropologist at Ben-Gurion University and an expert on the tradition of praying at the graves of the righteous. “In this model, you’re not supposed to understand. Your participation will make everything be accepted.”

SOCIAL LIFE • 11

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

ANNOUNCEMENTS

2013 Passover Cover

COLORING

CONTEST SIZE:

Art must be no larger than 8.5" Wide x 11" High.

MATERIALS:

Anything that shows up bold and bright, such as markers, crayons, paint or cut paper.

AGE CATEGORIES:

Open to children of all ages.

All entries must be received by FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE 18 WEST NINTH, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OH 45202 Entries must have a completed entry form attached to the back. Please print clearly.

2013 Passover Cover Coloring Contest Entry Form

Alexis Grace

BIRTH BIRTH eff and Elizabeth November would like to announce the birth of their second daughter, Alexis Grace, on November 16.

She weighed 7lbs. and 15 ounces. Alexis has an older sister, Mikayla Renae, who is 4.

Alexis Grace is the new granddaughter of Mark and Carol November and Ron and Theresa Burgess.

J

in Geography from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev and her M.A. in Urban and Environmental Planning from Tel Aviv University.

Adam is originally from Cincinnati. He is the son of Michael and the late Ellen Ganson. His paternal grandparents are the late Reva and Norma Ganson. His maternal grandparents are Miriam and the late Leonard Bernstein. He received his B.A. in English and Jewish Studies at Indiana University and then received his M.A. in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. Adam immigrated to Israel in September 2010.

He, along with Moran, is now the co-director of Earth’s Promise, located in Be’er Sheva, Israel.

A March 2013 wedding is planned. It will be in Tel AvivYafo.

ANNIVERSARY ANNIVERSARY anuary 21, 1943

ENGAGEMENT

“J

ichael Ganson announces the engagement of his son, Adam Joshua Ganson, to Moran Marcel Slakmon.

Moran Slakmon is originally from Ashdod, Israel.

She is the daughter of Ruth and Hanan Slakmon of that city. Moran earned her B.A.

“Ensign Stanley J. Abrams, United States Navy, and Betty Lee Schiff were united in marriage on this day, by Rabbi Victor Reichert, in a ceremony at the Hotel Alms.”

70 years ago!

Still together!

Thanks, Betty Abrams

M

Adam Joshua Ganson and Moran Marcel Slakmon

12 • KIDS & SUMMER CAMPS

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Camp at the J offers unique camper experiences Many people know that Camp at the J offers an excellent day camp experience for children in grades K – 3. Camp at the J also offers older campers (Grades 4 – 10) many unique summer camp experiences that make memories for a lifetime. Three summer camps that will have your kids talking for years are Quest Camp, Quest Overnight at Camp

Livingston and the Counselor in Training (CIT) program. The JCC is now accepting registrations for all three programs.

Quest Campers (grades 4 – 6 and 7 – 8) will travel off-site for two to three day trips each week to places like Kings Island, the Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville Slugger Factory, Mammoth Cave, COSI in

Columbus, and Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. Campers will also enjoy indoor and outdoor activities that include: art, sports, swimming, drama, archery and more. Additionally, campers will have the chance to meet up and make friends with JCC’s from all around the Tri-State. All trip and overnight fees are included in Quest Camp fees. If your camper likes to stay closer to home, they will have a full and fun day scheduled at Camp at the J where they will have the chance to choose activities by interest. Quest Camp is offered in two, three-week sessions (June 17 – July 5 & July 8 – July 26).

Quest Overnight at Camp Livingston is a great way to ease your child into an overnight camp.

Your camper will travel to Camp Livingston with their Quest Camp friends and the Camp at the J counselors they have come to know. Campers will enjoy a week full of activities which include swimming in the lake, testing the ropes course, climbing the climbing wall and a Shabbat full of fun.

This one week camp (July 29 – Aug. 4) is discounted 30 percent from regular Camp Livingston prices.

Camp Livingston, Cincinnati’s Jewish Resident Camp since 1920, is in Bennington, Ind.

Campers in grades 9 – 10 can develop leadership and communication skills as they assist camp staff with daily activities and participate in fun CIT programs with Camp at the J. This special program requires a 6-week commitment (June 17 – July 26) and is free the second year of CIT participation. Campers will learn about camp operation and programming, and gain confidence. Working with children develops leadership and communication skills, and will provide students with both memories and new skills that will help them in their college application process.

Summer at Camp Livingston

CAMP CHABAD AT

CAMPUS RECREATION CENTER JUNE 24TH – AUGUST 9TH

THE

Your child will have a Jewish camp experience filled with discovery, excitement, friendship and fun!

2-12 YEARS OLD • 9:00–4:00 LUNCH & TRANSPORTATION INCLUDED! MORNING AND AFTER CARE AVAILABLE SWIMMING LESSONS AVAILABLE

We are the ONLY Jewish resident camp owned and operated by the Cincinnati Jewish community.

Located in the beautiful rolling hills of southern Indiana, Camp Livingston is the place to be for a summer of friends, sports, arts, nature, and positive Jewish expe-

Thanks to the support of the Jewish Foundation and others, the Jewish Overnight Camping Program is offering grants of up to $1,000 to enable children to attend overnight camp. Prof. Getzel Cohen, the director of the Camping Program, said “Once again the Jewish children of Cincinnati and their parents are immensely grateful to the Jewish Foundation for its support of the

Campers choose instruction from an array of professional “iShops”

8485 Ridge Road (at Ronald Reagan Highway) Amberley Village, Oh 45236

CampChabad.org • 513.731.5111 Save more than $200! Register now!

Program. As a result of the generosity and support of the Jewish Foundation many Cincinnati children can go to an overnight Jewish camp and return to it for a second year.”

The program, which provides grants for all Jewish youth from the greater Cincinnati area who want to attend Jewish overnight camps, provides grants for first year and second year applicants.

The grants are available for all children, regardless of whether or not they have previously attended a Jewish overnight camp.

Children can apply for a grant of up to $500 for a two-week summer session or a grant of up to $1,000 for a three-week or more summer session.

The application deadline for the Camping Program is May 1.

2013 Camp Directory 2013 Camp at the J Listings

Adventures with Robots Room Decorating 101 Baseball Clinic Leather Designs The Art of Magic Master Chef Woodworking Chocolate Creations Engineering with Lego

timers! Campers discover what it means to be Jewish in modern society through engaging and experiential programs. Camp Livingston is dedicated to making camp affordable for ALL Jewish children; please call to ask about grants and scholarships.

The Jewish Overnight Camping Program offers grants

Introducing iShops!

Acting Jewelry Design Martial Arts Amazing Accessories Plasterworks Tennis Bead Creations Soccer Clinic Basketball Clinic

riences. Our caring staff supervises a progressive program that includes athletics, nature, waterfront activities, arts-and-crafts, performing arts, a challenge course, adventure travel and camping trips and much more!

New one week program for first

There are JCC camps for children in preschool through grade 10, offered in various session lengths, June 3 – Aug. 30 this summer.

Campers will enjoy rain or shine fun in the JCC indoor and outdoor facilities.

Parents may drop off campers as early as 7 a.m., and pick up as late as 6 p.m. (regular camp day is 9:30 a.m – 3:30 p.m., with optional lunch and before/after camp programs). Additionally, many one-week camps are offered, such as horseback riding.

The programs are listed by age.

JCC Camp: Little Hikers Ages 18 months – Pre-K Dates: June 3 – 14 (1-week camps), June 17 – July 26 (6week camp), and/or July 29 – Aug. 30 (1-week camps) Littlest campers will have a variety of indoor and outdoor adventures from 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Busy days include art, music, cooking, nature, and much more. Swim lessons for ages 3 & older, too.

JCC Camp: Adventure Camp Kindergarten Dates: June 10 – 14 (1 week) Each day includes a variety of activities – sports outside and in the gym, art, drama, music, nature and more. There’s swimming in the outdoor pool or indoor waterpark on rainy days.

JCC Camp: Hikers Grades K – 3 Dates: June 3 – 7 (1 week) Activities include sports, art, drama, music, nature, archery and more. With our indoor and outdoor pools, there’s swimming and splashing every day, rain or shine!

JCC Camp: Trailblazers Grades K – 3 Dates: June 17 – July 26 (6-week session) Develop creativity with art, drama and music; learn teamwork and sportsmanship; and gain a sense of accomplishment with daily Red Cross certified swim lessons. Bunk and unit activities build strong bonds and life-long friendships. On rainy and steamy summer days, the fun moves

KIDS & SUMMER CAMPS • 13

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

inside to the Mayerson JCC indoor waterpark and gym.

JCC Camp: 1-Week S’More Camps Grades K – 3 Dates: July 29 – Aug. 2; Aug. 5 – 9; and/or Aug. 11 – 16 (1-week camps) Campers will develop independence as they choose their own camp adventures. Activities include sports, drama, art, music, nature, swimming in the outdoor pool and indoor splash pool and much more.

JCC Camp: Horseback Riding Camp Grades 1 – 3 Dates: July 29 – Aug. 2 (1 week) Travel each day from the JCC to East Fork Stables to learn horsemanship skills, horse grooming, and care. Ride in the indoor arena and/or on the outdoor trail.

Horseback Riding Camp has limited camper space available.

JCC Camp: Laffalot Camp Gades 1 – 3 Dates: June 10 – June 14 (1 week) This camp is run by Laffalot Summer Camp at the JCC, and runs 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Register directly with Laffalot.

You’ll love the high energy games and activities that primarily focus on having fun! This camp is designed to develop teamwork, encourage friendly competition and good sportsmanship, as well as build whole body coordination.

JCC Camp: Hikers Grades 4 – 6 Dates: June 3 – 7 (1 week) Pack up your gear and hike into summer! CHOOSE your favorite camp activity for part of each day!

Swim and hang out in the outdoor pool and indoor waterpark.

JCC Camp: Laffalot Camp Grades 4 – 6 Dates: June 10 – 14 (1 week) This camp is run by Laffalot Summer Camp at the JCC, and runs 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Register directly with Laffalot.

You’ll love the high energy games and activities that focus on having fun! This camp is designed to develop teamwork, encourage friendly competition, and good sportsmanship, while you build whole body coordination.

JCC Camp: 1-Week S’More Camps Grades 4 – 8 Dates: July 29 – Aug. 2; Aug. 5 –

9; and/or Aug. 11 – 16 (1-week camps) Campers design each day for maximum fun. Choose sports, drama, art, music, nature and more. Swim in the outdoor pool, zoom down the tube slide, and float in the current channel.

Livingston Grades 4 – 6 and 7 – 8 Dates: July 29 – Aug. 4 (1 week) Can’t bear to say goodbye to your Quest friends? Experience overnight camp with your Quest friends and Quest staff and travel to Camp Livingston for a week of adventure. Swim in the lake (complete with an entire AquaPark!), try the climbing wall and ropes course, experience a Shabbat full of fun, and enjoy lots of exclusive Livingston activities.

Camp Livingston, in Bennington, Ind., has been Cincinnati’s Jewish Resident Camp since 1920.

JCC Camp: Horseback Riding Camp Grades 4 – 8 Dates: Aug. 5 – 9 (1 week) Travel each day from the JCC to East Fork Stables to learn horsemanship skills, horse grooming, and care. Ride in the indoor arena and/or on the outdoor trail.

Horseback Riding Camp has limited camper space available.

Counselor-in-Training at the J Entering grades 9 and 10 Dates: June 17 – July 26 (6-week session Develop your leadership and communication skills as you assist camp staff with daily activities, and also participate in fun CIT programs. You’ll learn about camp operation and programming, and gain confidence about working with young children.

Bond with your fellow CITs, too!

JCC Camp: Quest Camp Grades 4 – 6 and 7 – 8 Dates: June 17 – July 5; July 8 – July 26 (3-week camps) Campers choose their own camp activity for a part of each day!

Try the new rough & rugged IDF-style (Israeli Defense Force) outdoor program or experience nature, kibbutz-style. Enjoy daily swimming in the outdoor and indoor pools. Travel off-site for day trips and overnights. Two or three trips every week!

Camp Chabad 7560 Reinhold Drive Cincinnati, Oh 45237

NEW! JCC Camp: Quest Overnight Camp at Camp

$1,000 GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR OVERNIGHT JEWISH CAMPING The Jewish Overnight Camping Program provides grants for all Jewish youth from the greater Cincinnati area who want to attend Jewish overnight camps. The grants are an investment in our children's future, made possible by the support and generosity of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and other donors.

Grants are available for all children, regardless of whether or not they have previously attended a Jewish overnight camp. Grants are offered to first year and second year applicants. Children can apply for a grant of up to $500 for a two-week summer session or a grant of up to $1,000 for a three-week or more summer session.

Grants from the Jewish Overnight Camping Program are a gift. They are not need-based and are not contingent on other scholarship or financial aid dollars.

•••

Further information and an application form are available at www.jewishcincinnati.org/camping.

Application Deadline is May 1, 2013 For information, please consult a congregational rabbi or

Michael Wagner at mwagner@jfedcin.org or 985-1510 or

Prof. Getzel Cohen at getzel.cohen@uc.edu or 556-1951 This program is administered by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.

ACA Accredited. Cincinnati’s premier Jewish Day Camp since 1975. Girls and Boys ages 2-14 enjoy a wide variety of activities with outstanding, nurturing and mature staff unique to Camp Chabad! This staff is hand-picked from across the globe so your child can have the best experience ever. Camp at the Campus Recreation Center is a blast, with over 200,000 square feet of indoor gymnasiums, climbing walls swimming facilities and air-conditioned bunk rooms; surrounded by professionally manicured sports fields and a lovely green space.

We offer free transportation from the Blue Ash and Mason areas with professionally driven buses.

Introducing Ishops! Campers get to choose their own “Ishop” from the following: Acting, Jewelry Design, Martial Arts, Amazing

Accessories, Plasterworks, Tennis, Bead Creations, Soccer Clinic, Basketball Clinic, Adventures with Robots, Room Decorating 101, Baseball Clinic, Leather Designs, The Art of Magic, Master Chef, Woodworking, Chocolate Creations, Engineering with Lego.

Campers can sign up for certified swim lessons in our leisure pool, featuring a lazy river, water wall and bubble bench. Weekly field trips to Kings Island, Ice skating, Laser tag, Pump it up and horseback riding amongst others lend an air of excitement. Morning care and after care are available for an additional fee. A T-shirt and all trips (excluding two) are included in the cost. Daily Kosher nutritious lunch and snacks are included as well. Camp runs from June 24 – Aug. 9; sign up for all 7 weeks or “mix and match” any week to suit your schedule.

14 • DINING OUT

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

Parker’s Blue Ash Tavern—the right bet for Valentine’s

By Michael Sawan Assistant Editor I’ve never heard of a restaurant that teaches you how to cook. More often than not, recipes are like ancient secrets, kept from outsiders with a zeal appropriate for Stone Masons and the Illuminati.

Parker’s Blue Ash Tavern, with Executive Chef Josh House at the helm, takes the opposite approach with a pro-community attitude. A week ago he hosted a Valentine’s Day cooking class, featuring lessons for couples who wanted to add an extra intimate touch to their holiday.

“We used foods that were also aphrodisiacs,” explained House, pinning the tail right on the donkey.

He elaborated with yet more reasons for the class’s success: “It was also just an economical way to approach Valentine’s Day, versus going out and spending a lot of money. [The items cooked] weren’t cheaper items by any means, but it’s stuff that you could simply make at home for you and your significant other. Also, [cooking at home] saves the hassle of going out and fighting the crowds on that holiday weekend.”

For those who missed the class but still want a taste of Parker’s Valentine’s romance, the restaurant will be having a special menu through Valentine’s Day weekend.

“We have a limited menu for Valentine’s Day,” said House.

“We’ve got the Red Wine Braised Short Ribs, that’s something we do in the cooking class. There’s still aphrodisiac ingredients incorporated into this menu, I wanted to do something different for each one.

But you know, the Braised Short Ribs, that’s what you do this time of year.”

And the love-fest isn’t stopping there: “We’re looking at the weekend, also, trying to carry Valentine’s Day into Friday and Saturday, possibly carry another three course menu.”

“We’re still kind of up in the air on it,” he added, “but we’ll do something.”

If it’s another cooking class you’re hankering, Parker’s will likely be offering one toward the end of April, in honor of a very different holiday. “Based on the success of [The Valentine’s Day] class, we’re looking forward to doing another in the future,” explains House. “We’re looking at possibly doing a Kentucky Derby themed class, since we obviously have a big horse racing motif around here.

Plus, I used to work in Louisville, so it’s a natural fit for me, to incorporate some of that stuff. I’ve had a couple of cooking classes where we’ve had a great turnout, and [we had] 40 people on [the class for Valentine’s Day]. And this is the first one we’ve ever done here.”

The horse motif House men-

Courtesy of Michael Sawan

(Clockwise) An outside view of the restaurant; Executive Chef Josh House with his trophy from this year’s Chicken Soup Cook-Off for Most Original Soup, Professional; The bar at Parker’s; A second fireplace in the bar area of Parker’s.

tions is no joke. There are saddles, trophies and racing paraphernalia all across Parker’s, giving it a sporty, yet refined, air. This is something that House has been thinking over a lot in his time at the restaurant.

“I like [Parker’s]. I like the clientele here, we have a good mix of business as well as couples and families. Lunch time and happy hour are obviously local, but as far as dinner time we get a lot of locals but, especially on the weekend, we get people from all around the area.

Right now it seems like we’re a destination restaurant, whether it’s birthdays, holidays or anniversaries, which is something that I’d like to hopefully change. We’re looking to make it more economically friendly on a daily basis, I’d much rather for people to be able to come here once

a week than once a year.

“We’ve just recently added live music on Thursday, so now we have Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and our general manager is a former band manager, so he has a great ear for live music. A lot of the bands we bring here have a great following in the area. So between that and our happy hour prices I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the area that can beat it.”

Expanding this mass appeal is a priority for House. “I think we truly have something for everybody. Everything here is scratch made, so we have something for the 5-year-old to the 105-year-old.

Once you get inside you see that we’re not stuffy, we’re not pretentious, you’re going to get good food, good service, a great wine list

and great bourbon.”

Parker’s Blue Ash Tavern has also been involved in the community, as recently as Wise Temple’s Chicken Soup Cook-Off. “We won the pro category for most original soup,” explains House proudly.

“We had a great time doing that, it was very cool. That was my first time to participate, I wasn’t here last year. We had a Smoked Chicken Green Chili.”

House’s passion for his food reared up as he described his creation: “We smoked the chickens for the soup in house, smoked the bones for the stock. It was great, we had a great time doing that.”

House even had some compliments for the competition: “[I liked] Wicked Witch’s soup, I believe is what it was called, from

Downtown. They had a chicken noodle soup that had some fresh rosemary in it, it was really nice.

Something different.”

As Parker’s Blue Ash Tavern asserts its place in the community, it’s comforting to know that you can assert yourself and find quite the catch: good food and quality, with an ambience that is both welcoming and classy. Their hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m 2:30 p.m for lunch, 3:30 - 10 p.m. for dinner; Saturday, 11 a.m - 2:30 p.m for lunch, 3:30 - 11 p.m. for dinner; Sunday, 10 a.m - 2 p.m for lunch, 3:30 - 8 p.m. for dinner.

Parker’s Blue Ash Tavern 4200 Cooper Road Cincinnati, OH 45242 (513) 891-8300

DINING OUT • 15

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

RESTAURANT DIRECTORY THAI SUSHI PASTA 20 Brix

Ferrari’s Little Italy & Bakery

Padrino

101 Main St

7677 Goff Terrace

111 Main St

Historic Milford

Madeira

Milford

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831-Brix (2749)

272-2220

965-0100

2912 Wasson Road, Cincinnati

Ambar India Restaurant

Izzy’s

Parkers Blue Ash Tavern

350 Ludlow Ave

800 Elm St • 721-4241

4200 Cooper Rd

Cincinnati

612 Main St • 241-6246

Blue Ash

1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888

891-8300

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281-7000

7625 Beechmont Ave • 231-5550 Andy’s Mediterranean Grille

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Pomodori’s

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5098B Glencrossing Way • 347-9699

121West McMillan • 861-0080

Authentic Cuisine

2 blocks North of Eden Park

8179 Princeton-Glendale • 942-7800

7880 Remington Rd

LOCATED IN THE CROSSINGS OF BLUE ASH

281-9791

300 Madison Ave • 859-292-0065

Montgomery • 794-0080

9525 KENWOOD ROAD (513) 745-9386

7905 Mall Road • 859-525-2333 Slatt’s Pub

Asian Paradise 9521 Fields Ertel Rd

Johnny Chan 2

4858 Cooper Rd

Loveland

11296 Montgomery Rd

Blue Ash

239-8881

The Shops at Harper’s Point

791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)

cafe-mediterranean.com

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272.2220 | ferrarilittleitaly.com

489-2388 • 489-3616 (fx) Stone Creek Dining Co.

Baba India Restaurant

Cincinnati's first and only true wine, restaurant and wine retail store.

Come in and enjoy an appetizer or entrée paired with one of the 100 wines we pour daily.

3120 Madison Rd

K.T.’s Barbecue & Deli

9386 Montgomery Rd

Cincinnati

8501 Reading Rd

Montgomery • 489-1444

321-1600

Reading

6200 Muhlhauser Rd

761-0200

West Chester • 942-2100

Kanak India Restaurant

Sukhothai Thai Cuisine

101 Main St • Historic Milford

Blue Ash

10040B Montgomery Rd

8102 Market Place Ln

831-Brix • www.20brix.com

891-8900 • 834-8012 (fx)

Montgomery

Montgomery

793-6800

794-0057

2912 Wasson Rd

Marx Hot Bagels

Tandoor

Cincinnati

9701 Kenwood Rd

8702 Market Place Ln

351-0123

Blue Ash

Montgomery

891-5542

793-7484

Bangkok Terrace 4858 Hunt Rd

Blue Elephant

Cafe Mediterranean 9525 Kenwood Rd

Mecklenburg Gardens

Tony’s

Cincinnati

302 E. University Ave

12110 Montgomery Rd

745-9386

Clifton

Montgomery

221-5353

677-1993

9769 Montgomery Rd

Meritage Restaurant

Wertheim’s Restaurant

Cincinnati

1140 Congress Ave

514 W 6th St

936-8600

Glendale

Covington, KY

376-8134

(859) 261-1233

Sushi • Steaks • Raw Bar Live Music Every Tues thru Sat! (513) 936-8600 9769 MONTGOMERY RD. www.jeffruby.com

Carlo & Johnny

Eddie Merlot’s

• Hyde Park (513) 871-6888 • Ft. Mitchell (859) 331-8822

10808 Montgomery Rd

Oriental Wok

Cincinnati

2444 Madison Rd

489-1212

Hyde Park

9386 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati, OH 45242

871-6888

AI

The American Israelite

(513) 489-1444 AVAILABLE AT THESE FINE LOCATIONS:

bigg’s

Marx Hot Bagels

Ridge & Highland

9701 Kenwood Rd. Blue Ash

LUNCH, DINNER, COCKTAILS, CARRY-OUT Elegant Banquets & Catering Available

orientalwok.com

AMBAR

BABA

KANAK

350 LUDLOW AVE. CINCINNATI, OH 45220 (513) 281-7000

3120 MADISON RD. CINCINNATI, OH 45209 (513) 321-1600

10040B MONTGOMERY RD. CINCINNATI, OH 45242 (513) 793-6800

Izzy’s 612 Main St. 800 Elm St.

Kroger Hunt Rd. – Blue Ash

Rascals’ Deli 9525 Kenwood Rd. Blue Ash

CINCINNATI’S BEST INDIAN RESTAURANTS

16 • OPINION

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

An end to the occupation

By Rabbi Avi Shafran Jewish Telegraphic Agency Like the repeatedly pummeled victim of depraved bullies who decides it might just be best to stay away from the schoolyard during recess, Israel recently opted to not show up to be judged by the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body with venerated members like Congo, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Malaysia and Qatar.

The UN body and a number of individual countries, including the United States, pleaded with Israel to not be the first country to refuse to appear for an HRC “Universal Periodic Review.” But the Israeli government, in its chutzpah, decided to just say no to presenting itself for assault yet again by a group that has demonstrated a deep and troubling fixation on one political dispute in a world in which, elsewhere, authorities routinely amputate body parts, blithely murder citizens, incarcerate innocent people without trial and look the other way as human beings are enslaved and sold like sides of beef.

The New York Times, predictably, did its own huffing, munificently conceding that the HRC is “not without faults” but asserting all the same that the Middle East’s only stable and free democracy was showing “an unwillingness to undergo the same scrutiny as all other countries” and depriving itself “of an opportunity to defend against abuse charges” – as if anything Israel might possibly say in its defense could magically turn deranged, hateful people into reasonable ones.

An HRC panel’s findings, just released, were telling.

The panel, made up of representatives of France, Pakistan and Botswana, contended that the establishment of Jewish settlements in “occupied” disputed territories violated the Geneva Conventions and constitutes a war crime.

“In other news,” as they say, the Washington Post, to its credit, issued a correction to a news story it ran last month that identified the Western Wall as “Judaism’s holiest site.”

After being cajoled by the vigilant folks at the watchdog group CAMERA, the paper conceded that the wall, rather, is “the holiest place Jews can pray” but that “Judaism’s holiest place is the Temple Mount.”

The Post’s error is a common one.

The BBC has made the same mistake, as have a number of other news organizations.

It’s an error worth parsing.

Obviously, the Muslim world has its own narrative, but the history accepted for centuries before the founder of Islam’s greatgrandfather was born has it that the Temple Mount, as its name testifies, was the site of Judaism’s central holy structure, first built

by King Solomon a millennium before the advent even of Christianity.

Hope for the restoration of the Temple as a place of Jewish worship has been a major element of Jewish prayer for the nearly 2,000 years since the Second Temple was destroyed by the ancient Romans.

When Israel captured Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, from Jordan in 1967, Jews and others flocked to the Western Wall; copious tears were shed and prayers prayed, as they still are there to this day.

But Israel made clear that the Temple Mount itself would remain under the jurisdiction of a waqf, or Islamic authority.

It remains under that waqf’s authority to this day, and while some fringe nationalistic groups demand that Israel assert its dominance over the Temple site, Israel ensures that no such group can take any step to advance its cause.

And no respected Jewish religious leader, whether haredi or national-religious, advocates for any imposed change to that status quo.

But every believing Jew knows that, through no military or political effort at all, one day Judaism’s holiest site will no longer host either a mosque, as it does today, or a church, as it did at other points in post-JewishTemple history, but a Divinely constructed Third Temple. The one we pray for thrice daily: “And may our eyes see Your return to Zion in mercy” and which will bypass – and undoubtedly come as a surprise to – the United Nations.

In the meantime, however, Jews are enjoined to accept the facts that the Messiah hasn’t yet arrived and that – as if it weren’t obvious – we live in a world often inhospitable to us.

We are also enjoined to realize that, in order to merit the Messiah’s arrival, we must turn inward and become the best Jews we can be, kind, charitable and observant – sincerely dedicated, in other words, to the Torah’s laws and teachings. We would also do well, though, to remind at least ourselves, although the thought might confound the Human Rights Commission, that if any piece of Middle East real estate ever deserved the epithet “occupied,” it’s the one just beyond the Western Wall.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to editor@americanisraelite.com

Dear Editor, Thank you very much for publishing the article titled, “Donors struggling to defray the rising costs of Jewish camp” in the Jan. 30 edition of the paper.

The article is completely correct, summer camp is expensive.

However, thanks to the generosity of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, summer camp is within reach of every child in the Cincinnati area. These organizations provide scholarships and

grants for Jewish overnight camps, and specifically for Camp Livingston, Cincinnati’s own Jewish overnight camp since 1920.

The article also stresses the importance of a Jewish summer camp experience to the future of our people and the community in which we live in. As well as benefitting the future of the Jewish people as a whole, summer camp also teaches amazing life skills, independence, and confidence on an individual level that our children would be hard pressed to

gain anywhere else.

I urge our community’s families – do not assume that summer camp is something you cannot afford. Camp Livingston has had a profound impact on my family as well as countless others throughout the years. If you give it the chance, camp will have that same effect on your family as well.

Sincerely, Gretchen Myers President, Camp Livingston Cincinnati, OH

What (not) to expect from Obama’s visit to Israel

By Ben Cohen JointMedia News Service Sometimes you have to give politicians a little credit. If you heard through the grapevine that two of your friends had been discussing you, with one calling you a “liar” and the other one replying, “I have to deal with him even more often than you,” chances are you would cut ties. And that’s exactly what former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama said, respectively, about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an unguarded moment at the G20 Summit in France two years ago.

Yet, in the aftermath of this exchange, it is the imperatives of statecraft, and not personal antipathies, that have won the day.

This spring – the White House has not released the precise date – the recently re-elected Obama will visit Israel to be hosted by the recently reelected Netanyahu. Doubtless, every journalist present will be watching both leaders for uneasy body language or facial ticks, as if the entire U.S-Israeli relationship can be interpreted through the fact that Bibi and Barack don’t like each other.

While it’s true that warm personal relationships have enhanced the foreign policies of certain presidents – think of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, or George W. Bush and Tony Blair – they are not a prerequisite for success. The key issue with Obama’s visit to Israel is not whether the President and Netanyahu can learn to like each other, but whether they can agree on common goals. Obama, in the past, has spoken of the importance of putting more “daylight” between himself and the Israelis. Perhaps the White House and Jerusalem might jointly decide that it’s time to close the gap, now that Obama and

Netanyahu will remain in power until the middle of the present decade.

Perhaps. There remain important strategic differences between the two countries which one visit alone is unlikely to resolve (Obama’s decision to thus far avoid a trip to Israel, which outraged sections of the American Jewish community, is actually the least of these.)

To begin with, there is Iran. The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has, as expected, rejected the Obama Administration’s proposal for direct talks on the mullahs nuclear program – an offer which, depending on your point of view, was either a smart way of outing the Iranians true intentions, or a weak gesture reminiscent of the “reset” policy with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Additionally, there is a change of leadership to consider: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, is on his way out, with a June election that may well see his hated rival, Ali Larijani, replace him.

Larijani, however, is no reformer. A former nuclear negotiator, he is also, like Ahmadinejad, a Holocaust denier who regularly rants about his desire to destroy Israel. Unless Obama can conclusively persuade Netanyahu that the sanctions imposed on Iran are working, their conversation on this topic is likely to reach the question of pre-emptive military action much more quickly than either would desire.

Then there is the situation in the Arab world. Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s slaughter of his own population continues unabated, is the most pressing concern.

America’s lack of leadership over the Syrian crisis, which contrasts markedly with France’s intervention against Islamist terrorists in the west African state of Mali, has piled doubt upon the endless predictions that Assad’s regime is in its final

days. Assad’s ire has again turned upon Israel, following an air strike in early February against what was reported to be a military research center near Damascus. All this has increased the instability on Israel’s northern frontier, which exploded into war as recently as 2006, after Hezbollah, a client of both Syria and Iran, rained missiles on Israeli towns and cities in the region. Nor are any of the post-Assad scenarios particularly comforting, given the rising presence of Islamists in the Syrian resistance.

As well as Syria, Egypt and potentially the rest of North Africa will be on the agenda, given the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in this part of the world. The Israelis can’t be pleased with the continuing provision of more than $1 billion in American aid to Egypt annually, given the anti-Semitic and antiIsrael noises President Muhamed Morsi and his cronies have been making. At the same time, the Americans can point out that Morsi’s control over the Egyptian army is far from complete, and that therefore a strong Egyptian military is a useful counterweight to the Islamists.

Finally, there is the Palestinian issue. As well as visiting Israel, Obama will visit the Palestinian Authority, which promises to be a far bigger headache. The Palestinian strategy of pursuing unilateral recognition, and of portraying Israel’s attempts to secure the integrity of Jerusalem as a devious scheme to deny them a contiguous state, does not comport well with American policy, however big the disagreements between Obama and Netanyahu have been. In Ramallah, Obama will face a Palestinian leadership whose current modus operandi is to diplomatically isolate, rather VISIT on page 19

JEWISH LIFE • 17

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

HAPPENING @ YOUR

Each cherub had the face of child and a winged body serving as a representative of and protection for the Torah, which constitutes the beloved, holy and eternal words of God’s covenant with Israel.

Sanctuary, the ark and the menorah, each of which is identified with Torah? Do these two objects of art and sanctity express different aspects of Torah? I would maintain that since the ark is found within the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum of the Holy Temple, and since within this ark we find the holy tablets of stone, the ark represents the exclusive Torah of Israel.

This is our sacred heritage that we must protect and transmit to our children and children’s children from generation to generation.

The light of the menorah, however, illuminates not only the space around itself but far beyond, representing the importance of spreading Torah throughout the world. The tree of life must be preserved for those who wish to use Torah to perfect, or complete, the world in the kingship of God. The Torah that will return us to Eden is the Torah destined for all of humanity.

For this reason, the menorah cannot be merely gold plated as is the ark; it must be beaten out of one piece of pure gold, gold both within and without, because in order to be a kingdom of priests, teachers who reach out to the world, we must first become a holy nation, equally pure both within and without; otherwise we will never succeed in influencing the world.

Based upon these two aspects of Torah, the holy ark, which protects the Torah for Israel and the menorah, which spreads the Torah throughout the world, there were two types of windows in the holy Temple.

There were opaque windows, which prevented the outside world from seeing the Torah within, and there were transparent windows, which allowed the Torah to extend outward (King Solomon made both transparent and opaque windows for the Temple, I Kings 6:4).

The Temple itself featured a sacrificial ritual that was unique to Israel, which included the Yom Kippur offerings that brought forgiveness and atonement exclusively to Israel. But the Temple also had an open-door policy that welcomed gentiles (I Kings 8:41-43) and

encouraged all nations to “beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isaiah 2, Micah 4).

The Hanukka menorah (hanukkia) was introduced after the comparatively small Maccabean army purified the Temple from Hellenistic influence and then (post-165 BCE) reached out to the world, publicizing God’s miracle. It must be kindled in public thoroughfares as a message to the world. It is not mere coincidence that this “menorah to the world” has become the branding image of Chabad, which lights Hanukka menorahs in public places all over the world. And it was the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (of blessed memory) who taught his disciples the necessity of teaching the seven Noahide laws to every human being.

Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi – Efrat Israel

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T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: TERUMA (SHMOT 25:1—28:9) 1. How was the donation to the Mishkan given? a.) Free will b.) People gave against their will c.) It was collected with free will, but people were forced to give if they refused to give 2. What was the donation? a.) Money b.) Objects c.) Both money and objects 3. Where were the wings of the Cherubim?

5. C 25:8 The Divine presence would make it holy. Rashi

EFRAT, Israel – “You shall make a menorah out of pure gold… its base, stem… and flowers… and its six branches extending from its sides, three branches on one side of the menorah and three branches on the other side;… they shall all be hammered out of a single piece of pure gold.” (Exodus 25:31-36) This week’s portion of Terumah comes immediately after the Divine Revelation at Sinai: “And they shall make for Me a sanctuary so that I may dwell amongst them.”

(Exodus 25:8) The Hebrews are commanded to build an elegant, majestic and portable House of God to carry with them during their 40-year desert sojourn. This desert sanctuary would morph into the more permanent Holy Temple once Israel settled in the Promised Land of Israel.

It is no wonder that the first of the sacred furnishings of God’s “temporary home” was the ark, the repository for the tablets of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), which hold the major content of the Divine Revelation. The holy ark was fashioned out of acacia wood covered with a layer of pure gold both on the inside and outside. A cherub was hammered out at each end of its golden cover.

Each cherub had the face of child and a winged body serving as a representative of and protection for the Torah, which constitutes the beloved, holy and eternal words of God’s covenant with Israel. These cherubs symbolize the children of Israel, who study the Torah in each generation, and the sages of Israel, who interpret it.

However, there was a second sacred object in the sanctuary which is also linked to Torah: the menorah, or candelabrum. The root of this word is ner, candle, as in the verse, “the candle is commandment and Torah is light” (Proverbs 6:23).

The menorah featured seven branches with a cup atop each.

These cups held the wick, the oil and the flame of the candle.

The entire menorah is unmistakably similar to a tree, with branches, stems and flowers. This symbol is most aptly explained by the verse describing Torah as “a tree of life to those who grasp it, and those who uphold it will be blessed.” (Proverbs 3:18) Why are there two different sacred accoutrements to the

WHAT’S

a.) Alongside their body b.) Behind their backs c.) Spread out over the Ark 4. What was in the Holy Ark? a.) Two Tablets with the ten commandments b.) Miraculous staff c.) Jar of the Mann 5. What was the name for the Tabernacle? a.) Tent of meeting b.) House of prayer c.) Place of Holiness

in the Mishkan listed in verses 4-7.Sforno 3. C 25:20 4. A 25:21

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

SHABBAT SHALOM: PARSHAT TERUMAH EXODUS 25:1 - 27:19

Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise

ANSWERS 1. C 25:2 2. B 25:3 They gave objects that could be used

Sedra of the Week

18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ

JEWZ

IN THE

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NEWZ

By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist

for genetic diseases that disproportionately affect Jews.

NEW TWILIGHT? Opening on Thursday, Feb. 14, is the supernatural film, “Beautiful Creatures.” It’s based on a best-selling young adult novel of the same name. If this film does well, it likely will be the start of a film series, as with the “Twilight” books and films.

Already, three hot selling book sequels have followed the first “Creatures” book.

The film opens with teenager Lena (Alice Engelbert) arriving in the small town. Lena is a “Caster,” and like the rest of her extended family, has strong supernatural powers. When she turns 16, she will be required to decide whether she will follow a “light” (good) or “dark” (evil) path. Lena quickly bonds with Ethan, a local teen who is bored with his hometown. Playing Ethan is the very handsome ALDEN EHRENREICH, 23.

He was discovered by STEVEN SPIELBERG when he was 14.

Spielberg chanced to see a funny video that Ehrenreich starred-in while attending a bat mitzvah. He contacted Ehrenreich and helped him get some TV guest roles. In 2007, Francis Ford Coppola picked Ehrenreich to star in his film “Tetro.” It didn’t do well when it opened in 2009. (I recently spoke to a source very close to Ehrenreich and she told me he is very proud of being Jewish.)

EMMY ROSSUM, 26 (“Shameless”), has a big supporting role as Lena’s cousin Ridley, who has chosen the “dark” path.

ZOEY DEUTCH, 18, has another large supporting role as Emily, a former girlfriend of Ethan who now hates Ethan and Lena and leads a group opposed to any Caster.

This is Deutch’s first big film role. In the last three years, she’s had large recurring roles on “Suite Life on Deck,” a Disney Channel series, and on the CW series, “Ringer.”

Her father is HOWARD DEUTCH, 63, a film director whose credits include “Pretty in Pink” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.” While making the latter film, he met his wife, actress Lea Thompson, who is also Zoey’s mother. In a recent interview, and twitter tweet, Zoey described herself as “Jewish.” I don’t believe Thompson, now 51, has converted to Judaism – but it’s possible. She recently did a public service ad for a Jewish health foundation, urging couples to test

MAY THE JEWS BE WITH YOU Last month came the news that Disney (which bought Lucas films last year) planned to make three new sequential films in the “Star Wars” saga and that they had hired J.J. ABRAMS, 46, to direct the first one, “Star Wars: Episode VII.” The three films will be made over a six-year period, starting in 2015. Abrams’ many stellar credits include directing the successful re-launch of the Star Trek movie series with his 2009 film, “Star Trek.” Another Abrams’ directed “Trek” film opens in May. Disney head BOB IGER, 61, surprised many last week when he said that Disney had engaged LAWRENCE KASDAN, 64, and SIMON KINBERG, 39, “to work on” separate films that will serve as “stand-alone” spinoffs of the main new trilogy. Iger told CNBC that their films are “derived from great ‘Star Wars’ characters that are not part of the overall saga.”

Kinberg is a top screenwriter (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith;” “XMen”). Kasdan’s notable credits include the screenplays for two of the best Star Wars pics: “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi.” He’s also well known for directing and writing a number of dramatic hits, including “The Big Chill” and “Body Heat.”

TV NEWS: SCHINDLER’S LIST, OSCARS SPECIAL, CORRECTED DATE On Saturday, Feb. 23, at 8 p.m., USA network will present a special, commercial free presentation of “Schindler’s List.” Director STEVEN SPIELBERG will provide a special introduction to his great Holocaust film, which was released 20 years ago. USA will offer additional information and resources in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation.

On Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 10 p.m., ABC will air an Oscars special hosted by Katie Couric. It includes tons of celebs, including BILLY CRYSTAL; lots of clips from past Oscars shows; behind the scenes footage, and some celeb home movies.

Two weeks ago, I said in this column that a BBC America miniseries, “Spies of Warsaw,” was set to start on Feb. 6. The date was changed: the two-part series will be shown on April 3 and April 10. I’ll mention this again in late March.

FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO National Theater – “Yankee Robinson” the inimitable and legitimate representative of the yankee character, has been the attraction this week. Whoever sees this unapproachable comedian can not fail to share in the mirth and laughter evinced by the audience in consequence of his spicy hits and witty sayings. The “Days of ‘76” has been performed several nights, with Mr. Robinson as Dairus Dutton, in which rendition he is unequalled.

We are happy to say that his stay among us has been extended another week. There will be a matinee on Saturday afternoon.

Wood’s Theater – Mrs. Cecile Rush has made a most favorable impression during this, her first engagement, in Cincinnati. She will be received with pleasure on a renewal of her visit, which we trust will not be far distant. Mr. G.D. Chaplin has ably supported the young actress; he is an artist of rare merit. This evening is set apart for the benefit of Mrs. Rush. On Monday, the celebrated Tragedienne, Miss Jane Coombs, will commence an engagement. – February 27, 1863

125 Y EARS A GO We are asked to suggest a new form of afternoon gatherings in lieu of the Pink Tea, Dove Party, Kaffee Klatsche, etc. The young ladies are to meet on a stated afternoon and embroider handkerchiefs, white ties (colored ones will be accepted) and such articles for their gentlemen friends. In order to avoid the possibility of embroidering a disproportionate number of articles for any one gentleman who happens to be a special favorite, it can be arranged that a list be furnished weekly. So far as can be seen at this moment none of the young gentlemen will interpose any objections to this arrangement.

A young gentleman who has just returned from Kansas City says that it is wonderful how many former Cincinnatians one meets in the streets of that wonderful Western city; and furthermore, they seem to be prosperous and contented with their new home. Notwithstanding their prosperity, however, they still retain the old affection for their native city, and listen with interest to all news from their native place.

– February 17, 1888

100 Y EARS A GO Mr. and Mrs. Louis Dessauer, of 287 Albany avenue, Avondale, will be at home Sunday, February 16, from 4 to 6, in honor of Mrs. Jonas Cohen (nee Dressauer), of New York City, and Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Weil (Ernestine Langfelder), of Monroe, La.

Mesdames Dave Hyman, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Edward Kleeman, of Syracuse, N.Y., and Philip Strauss, of Chicago, Ill., are in the city, having come to celebrate the eightieth birthday anniversary of their mother, Mrs. Amelia Strauss.

At home Saturday afternoon, February 15, at 301 Hearne avenue, Avondale, where they will be pleased to see their friends.

Prof. Zeublin is one of the best informed men on the topics on which he speaks in the country, and whether we agreee with all or any of his conclusions his lectures cannot but help be both attractive and entertaining. It is as well to add for the information of our readers that these Sunday afternoon lectures are remarkably well attended, and those who wish to secure good seats must come early. The lecture is free and the public is cordially invited to attend. – February 13, 1913

75 Y EARS A GO Mrs. Anna Sraus, 668 Rockdale Avenue, announces the engagement of her daughter, Miss Frances Belle Straus, to Mr. Albert M. Lewis, son of Mrs. Sarah M. Lewis, of Philadelphia. Miss Straus is a member of the international B’nai B’rith staff. Her fiance is an upperclassman at the Hebrew Union College and attended the University of Cincinnati and Western Reserve, where he was a member of Zeta Beta Tau. The marriage will be solemnized early this summer.

Announcement is made of the engagement of Miss Beatrice Lerner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Max Lerner, 711 Gholson Avenue, to Mr. Max Rutman, 3592 Van Antwerp Place. Miss Lerner is a member of the Jewish Center staff.

Mr. and Mrs. I. H. Goldberg will receive at a Bar Mitzvah reception in honor of their son, Alvin, Sunday Feb. 27, from 7 to 11:30 p.m. at Beth Jacob Synagogue, St. Lawrence Avenue opposite Kirbert Avenue, Price Hill. The Bar Mitzvah will take place Saturday morning at Beth Jacob. – February 24, 1938

50 Y EARS A GO Robert E. Levinson has been elected president of Camp Livingston. He succeeds Philip T. Cohen.

Chosen also at the board’s annual meeting were: David Kahn, first vice president; Robert Cohan, second vice president; John Tobias, third vice president.

Mr. Levinson is a past president of the Bake Shop.

He is a past national director of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce and past president of the local Junior Chamber. He is treasurer of the Council of World Affiars here and scoutmaster for Troop 819.

Everyone interested is urged to attend Camp Livingston’s annual reunion Sunday, March 3, at 2 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center.

Mrs. Lillian Novik, registrar, will be present to arrange interviews. She may be contacted through phone on weekdays. – February 14, 1963

25 Y EARS A GO The Soviet Jewish refusenik population of Cincinnati increased by four when the Belkin family from Baku arrived here last Friday afternoon, Feb. 12.

An exhausted Rafail, 38, his wife, Mery, 38, and their two sons, 13-year-old Vadem and 12-yearold Emil exited Gate B2 at the Greater Cincinnati International Ariport into the waiting outstretched arms of Mery’s father, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew.

“It’s a big joy, it’s a big joy,” said Abram Khudyak, Mery’s father. Khudyak hadn’t seen his daughter, son-in-law and grandsons for more than nine years.

Mery’s brother and sister-inlaw, David and Rachel Khudyak and their son and daughter, Mark and Renata, as well as cousin Irv Spivak and friend of the family, Irene Kinnan, were also at the ariport to greet the foursome. Kinnan acted as interpretor for Jewish Family Service’s representative, Harriet Geller.

Spivak told The American Israelite that he remembered the exact date he last saw his cousins in the Soviet Union – Nov. 14, 1978. – February 18, 1988

10 Y EARS A GO The Jewish Federation’s Women’s Thank You program will take place March 23 at The Phoenix.

“This is a special opportunity for our Jewish Federation to thank all the women of our community who generously contributed to the 2003 Jewish Federation Campaign,” said Patty Kroeger, who, along with Dara Abel, will co-chair the event. “We want to recognize their significant commitments and the importance of women’s contributions and being counted as an individual.”

Children’s wear will be presented by Moonbeam Bambini in addition to a special line of clothing from Doncaster presented by Susan Brenner. Tanya from Tanya’s Health and Wellness Salon in Hyde Park will speak to the attendees about make up and spring trend tips. She will award one Thank You participant an “onthe-spot” makeover and present that individual to the audience at the conclusion of the program. – February 20, 2003

FOOD / CLASSIFIEDS • 19

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc.

(513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 214-1200 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 JVS Career Services (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org

CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • btzbc.com Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org

Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com

EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center (513) 234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com

All About Food Zell’s Bites

by Zell Schulman “Hello” from Scottsdale, Ariz. I needed to get away where it is a little warmer. You won’t believe it but you know the old saying: “You Can’t Fool Mother Nature,” well this week has set records for the most rain and the coldest temperatures. Even so, 60 for a high is not too bad considering Cincinnati has gotten into the teens and lower.

It’s been an adventure. I am enjoying a lovely place called ARTÉ. It is a resort set up for retirement living and I’m known as “A Snowbird.” The food is good, the people friendly and the decision to come, a good one.

We were taken to an Art Fair in Carefree Cave Creek where we had lunch at Venues Cafe, where Executive Chef Thomas Ryan prepared one of the best hamburgers I’ve eaten in a long time. The artists came from many places and yes, I couldn’t resist purchasing a small vase, hand carved from shell which will be waiting for me on my return home.

My childhood friend, Judy Lucas, winters here and my cousins Michael and Ellen Kruke also live here. Art shows, dinner VISIT from page 16

ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 BBYO (513) 722-7244 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati.hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org

than engage with, Israel.

Moreover, it is a leadership that remains divided between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

Nor should we forget the fact that the backing of Hamas by two key American allies in the region, Turkey and Qatar, threatens to bury the PA’s talks with Obama into migraine-inducing complexity.

Some readers will already be aware that I’ve ranked the above topics in order of priority. The Palestinian question is not, as Chuck Hagel, Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, believes, the key to stability in the Middle East.

Right now, a Palestinian state alongside Israel – the much-vaunted and increasingly tired-looking “two state solution” – will satisfy no one. Arab and Muslim radicals will denounce any hint of a deal as treachery, leaving PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who hasn’t exactly established his credentials as an honest negotiator, with little room for maneuvering.

and a Sunday lecture series sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix, have all helped to make my Arizona stay here exciting.

Let us get back to the culinary world. Food and Beverage Director Erin has the residents eating “out of her hand” so to speak.

She creates her menus seasonally, Fall-Winter and Spring-Summer.

There is always a Specialty menu which features fresh fish, poultry or meat as well as seasonal fresh vegetables and a variety of ice cream and freshly baked chip cookies as well as great pies and cakes. There have been times if I didn’t have the server save my dessert choice ahead of time I had to settle for their mint chocolate chip ice cream, which I’ve become addicted to. It’s not Graeters, but it’s very, very good.

Two of the servers here, Conner and Mary Beth have recently arrived from Cincinnati. Both of them attend the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Conner is giving us a piano recital on Sunday afternoon.

Mentioning Sunday brings to mind their Sunday Brunch. This is not to be missed. Many of the residents invite family and friends to join them. There is everything from fresh fruit salads, tossed salads, bagels and lox, interesting casseroles, freshly sliced filet or turkey breast and wonderful desserts. It is both a feast for the eyes and the body.

Before I know it, it will be time to return home. This has been a first time alone without my dear Mel, but I know he too would have loved sharing this with me as I hope you are reading about it.

The wisest way of approaching Obama’s visit, then, is to do so without expectations. If Obama repeats his pledge made during the election campaign to stand by Israel in the event of an attack, that outcome will be satisfying enough. Presidential visits abroad are, in any case, carefully stage-managed events. The strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship will be tested not while Obama is in the country, but once he is gone.

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Key West: ‘Conch-ed’ out in the Conch Republic Wandering Jew

by Janet Steinberg This is not an April Fool’s joke. It may be tongue-in-cheek, but it’s true.

On April 23,1982, Key West, Fla. seceded from the United States of America and formed The Conch Republic. Their motto, and the Conch Republic flag, reads: “We Seceded Where Others Failed.”

The trouble began when the United States Border Patrol set up a roadblock and inspection point on US 1 at the place where the highway connected the Florida Keys to the Mainland. Vehicles were stopped and searched for narcotics and illegal immigrants, thus creating traffic delays and hassles for tourists.

The complaints of the Conchs (Key Westerners’ nickname... pronounced konks) went unanswered, so the City Council took matters into their own hands. They protested, saying that since they were being treated as a foreign country, they might as well be one. They took the name of the Conch Republic and declared war against the United States.

The April 23 war lasted one minute as the city’s mayor (who was proclaimed Prime Minister) symbolically broke a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a naval uniform.

The Prime Minister then surrendered and applied for one billion dollars in foreign aid.

Key West did not get the billion dollars in foreign aid, but they did get a billion dollars worth of publicity.

Cayo Hueso, or “The lsland of Bones” as the 18th century Spaniards called Key West, is located 155 miles south of Miami. The Overseas Highway, sometimes called the “Highway that Goes to Sea,” is 113 miles of roadway (including the Seven-mile Bridge at Marathon) that leapfrogs the Florida Keys to their most southerly point.

The best way to see the city in a short time is by riding the Old Town Trolley and the Conch Tour Train.

Palm-studded streets shade the pastel retreats that once housed such notables as Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and John Audubon. “Papa” Hemingway, the first important writer to discover and make Key West his home, arrived there in

J. Seward Johnson sculpture in front of Custom House

1928 when he was working on “A Farewell to Arms.” It was in Key West that he penned most of his great novels including “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “To Have and Have Not” and “The Macomber Affair.”

Today, visitors can tour the National Historic Landmark that was the home of Pulitzer Prize winner Ernest Hemingway. Several items of the property are of particular note. A replica of the ceramic cat sculpture, given to the cat-loving “Papa” Hemingway by his friend Picasso, sits atop a chest.

A discarded Sloppy Joe’s urinal, given to Hemingway by his good friend Joe Russell (owner of Hemingway’s hang-out joint “Sloppy Joes”), was turned into what must be the most famous feline watering hole in the world. An old Spanish olive jar forms the top of the fountain. The trough that forms the base of the fountain is the abovementioned urinal. Hemingway’s then-wife Pauline surrounded the trough with colorful tiles in an attempt to disguise its true identity.

Also noteworthy is a penny embedded in the poolside patio.

Having paid $20,000 for the first swimming pool built in Key West (in the late 1930s), Hemingway took a penny from his pocket, pressed it into the wet cement of the surrounding patio, then told his wife: “Well, you might as well take my last cent.” The wife, Hemingway’s second of four, was ultimately divorced. The poolside penny remains.

A living memorial to the late author has also been preserved at his Spanish-colonial mansion.

Approximately 40-50 polydactyl (six-toed) cats, descendants of the nearly 50 cats who lived there with “Papa”, still call 907 Whitehead Street home.

Harry Truman’s Little White House, which initially served as the command headquarters during the Spanish American War, first served as President Truman’s winter White House in 1946. Today, the Harry S. Truman Little White House is a fascinating public museum as well as a retreat and place of government business by our nation’s leaders.

Another major attraction in Key West is the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum where you can view the Mother Lode from the treasureladen Spanish galleon Atocha.

The picturesque 21-acre, 1847 Key West Cemetery, in the “dead” center of the island’s historic district, is a photographic gem filled with humor and history. Carved into the headstone of a widow’s deceased philandering husband is this message: “At least I know where he’s sleeping tonight.”

As you walk along Seventh Avenue, a black archway with the letters “B’nai Zion” marks the entry to the Jewish Cemetery. To the immediate left is a large, white crypt with a facing tablet expounding another expression of Conch humor.

It reads: “I told you I was sick.”

Two photo ops are not to be missed in Key West. The Southernmost Point in the continental United States, only 90 miles from Cuba, is marked by a large, red concrete buoy at the corner of South and Whitehead Streets. The small green Mile Marker 0 sign, at

Buoy marks the southernmost point of the continental USA

the junction of Fleming and Whitehead Streets, marks the southern tip of U.S. Highway 1.

Accommodations range from the many charming B&Bs throughout the city, to the Pier House Resort and the Westin Resort & Marina in the heart of Old Town, to the luxurious, historic 1920s Casa Marina at Higgs Beach.

You really haven’t been to Key West until you’ve downed a few at Captain Tony’s and Sloppy Joe’s.

When Hemingway first came to KeyWest in 1934, he frequented a rough and tumble fisherman’s saloon at 428 Greene Street. This became the original Sloppy Joe’s Bar, “Papa’s” favorite haunt.

When Sloppy’s rent was raised, owner Joe Russell instructed his patrons to pick up their drinks and bar stools, and they all moved to its present location at 201 Duval Street. The Greene Street saloon then became known as Captain Tony’s. Call them colorful...call them honky-tonk... or call them tourist traps. Call them whatever you like. But, by any other name, Captain Tony’s and Sloppy Joe’s are much more than mere saloons.

They are symbolic personifications of Key West itself.

Whether it’s ConchCaribbean, Cuban, Chinese, or Classical American food you prefer, you can find them all – and more – in Key West.

Of course, there’s always a cheeseburger at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. If you don’t mind eating in an unpainted funky shack, there’s B.O.’s Fish Wagon for a fresh fish sandwich served on fresh-baked

Cuban bread. A hand-painted sign states: “if it looks like fish, and smells like fish, it ain’t fresh.” You’ll either “get this place,” or you won’t!

However, for a lovely dining experience, SHOR American Seafood Grill serves the best of the area’s fresh-off-the-boat seafood in a million-dollar setting with a dropdead view of the Gulf of Mexico and the glorious Key West sunset.

Yes, the sun sets. It happens every night. It happens everywhere in the world. But, in Key West, Fla., it is much more than something that just happens. It is a happening. Sunset at continental America’s southernmost city – that flaming moment when the great orange ball seems to drop off the edge of the universe – is a fiery celebration. It is the sun, the green-blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the people. It is the local Conch, the visitor, the juggler, the belly dancer, and the mime... all of whom gather at Mallory Square Pier for nature’s nightly spectacular.

This island of contrasts is a place where pirates once preyed and presidents once played. It is a place where straight meets gay, where drunk drinks with sober. It is Caribbean and continental, traditional and avant garde. It is the Conch people, conch fritters, conch chowder, the Conch Tour Train, Conch High School, and Conch cheerleaders known as Conchettes, just to name a few. By the time you leave this end of the Florida Keys, this end of the highway, and this end of the rainbow, I can assure you, you’ll be conch-ed out.

AUTOS • 21

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013

2013 Audi A5—attention is earned Performance against practicality has always been the discussion around coupes, but the 2013 Audi A5 Coupe harmoniously blends them together with brisk performance, all-weather traction, room for four, and a fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. The result is perhaps the best answer yet to the great coupe debate.

The Audi A5 Coupe goes out of its way to see and be seen, with 2013 bringing revamped designs of the headlights, taillights and fog lights. The available Audi S line package unleashes the Audi Sport racing heritage by adding sharper styling to the front and rear bumpers and rocker panels, resulting in a sports coupe that looks as good as it drives.

The interior design of the A5 Coupe focuses on the driving experience as much as feel. The instrument panel is angled toward the driver, with ergonomically designed controls and a leatherwrapped multifunction sport steering wheel falling naturally to hand. Coupled with the available Twelve-way power sport front seats (which includes four-way power lumbar adjustment for both front seats) and three-zone automatic climate control, just sitting down in the cockpit seems like a luxury unto itself.

A car this sporty deserves the ability to be driven to its greatest potential. The often-imitated Audi 2.0-liter TFSI four-cylinder engine delivers power and torque smooth-

REHAB from page 1 Saller expects to treat many patients who need help recovering from surgery and sports injuries.

Specific conditions will include lots of strains and sprains, back and leg injuries and balance disorders as well as rehab for patients who are recovering from strokes and knee or hip replacements.

Brief daily classes will focus on topics such as preventing back injuries, golf swing analyses and BREAKFAST from page 5 said, “Imagine Iran as an untouchable nation… We are grateful for the United States’ administration to take the lead on this situation.”Aharoni expressed hopes that President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel would lead to “peace talks with no preconditions,” adding that “Israelis believe that the ongoing refusal of the Palestinians to accept Israel’s right to exist” is the basic problem.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (DNY) highlighted the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, suggesting that the time period until peace talks are actually underway, should be used to “get one issue on

2013 Audi A5

ly over a broad range of engine speeds through direct fuel injection, intercooled turbocharging and the Audi valvelift system. The Audi quattro all-wheel drive system adjusts the power continuously between the front and rear axles, delivering superior traction in practically all driving conditions.

In the A5, safety does not take staying youthful.

All major medical insurance plans are accepted. Testing to determine whether a person can benefit from physical therapy is free.

A JCC membership is not required to use the rehab services.

For patients who want to transition to a fitness program after finishing physical therapy, the Mayerson JCC is offering a free one-month membership to patients who complete their physical therapy there. the table: compensation for the 850,000 Jewish refugees kicked out of Arab lands… Arrangements for Jewish refugees should be made on an equal basis [as will be done for Arab refugees].”

Turning to domestic budget issues, Nadler stressed that the country’s budget deficit is due to the recession, not spending for entitlements. “The focus should not be on the deficit – rather it should be on the economy – getting jobs and lowering unemployment… We are coming out of recession, but not out of unemployment,” he said, stressing that “you don’t create jobs by cutting spending… the only way to get the economy moving is to spend more money.”

a back seat to performance and practicality. Six airbags keep occupants protected from the front and sides, while Electronic Stability Control helps secure your trajectory at all times. In the event of a collision, intelligent sensors automatically unlock the doors, switch on interior and hazard lights, and cut off fuel flow to the engine.

The truest life of luxury is found in the A5 2.0T Prestige.

This premium model includes xenon plus headlights that pivot up to 15 degrees when turning, illuminating curves more effectively. Additional static cornering lights help illuminate your way around sharper turns.

This model also takes keyless

entry to the next level, with the Audi advanced key letting you operate the locks and start the car without even reaching for your pocket.

Also included is the Audi MMI Navigation plus feature, a seveninch screen with voice control, CD and DVD compatibility, and dual SD memory card slots. New features for 2013 include Bluetooth streaming audio and Audi connect online service, which adds Google Local Search and Google Earth mapping service overlays to help you explore your destination and plan ahead. The display can also provide news, weather and local fuel prices, and serve as a Wi-Fi Internet hotspot for up to eight electronic devices.

Safety continues at a premium.

When driving above 19 mph, Audi side assist will detect cars in your blind spot and flash LEDs in the side mirror housings, helping make lane changes a drama-free affair.

Also included in the A5 2.0T Prestige is the Bang & Olufsen Sound System. Capable of filling the interior with 505 watts of crisp, premium sound through 14 speakers, the Bang and Olufsen uses Dolby Digital 5.1 technology to create the impression of a soundstage. There is also state of the art noise compensation technology which helps to maintain a constant perceived loudness under varying road conditions and speeds.

MSRP for the Audi A5 starts at $37,850.

22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES RASSELL, Marvin Joseph, M.D., age 92, died February 3, 2013; 23 Shevat, 5773.

GOLDBERG, Howard M., age 85, died February 5, 2013; 26 Shevat, 5773.

BORTZ, Sylvia, age 83, died February 10, 2013; 30 Shevat 5773.

O BITUARIES LEVINE, Shoshana Shoshana Desa Wolk LeVine was born October 12, 1926, and died January 30, 2013. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she spent 69 of her 86 years, she was an only child of Rabbi Samuel Joseph Belmont Wolk (z’’l) and Dena Gertrude Morgenstern Weiss (z’’l). She graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1944 and the University of Cincinnati in 1948.

She married Leslie Isadore Lee LeVine (z’’l) in 1949 and they remained married until his death in 1996. She raised two sons before she returned to school and work.

She earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate from U.C., and she was a skilled psychologist and therapist for over 20 years. She was also a family oriented, caring person. Over the course of her life, she spent many years as the primary caregiver for other family members who were ill, including her husband’s two older sisters, her aunt, her mother and her husband.

After her husband died, she began to show signs of dementia and ultimately this disease robbed her of SEEKING from page 7 the war as a military nurse, she learned of her family’s murder. The blow was immediate: The next morning, some of her hair turned white, and it remained so.

Sofia herself nearly was killed once. A decade ago, a bullet shot from the village of Beit Jalla almost struck her during a period of Palestinian attacks. It occurred

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

who she was. In 2000, she was moved to Mountain View, Calif., so that we could better provide care for her locally. She is survived by her two sons, Elchanan (formerly known as Laurence Craig “Larry” LeVine) and David Howard LeVine, her daughter-inlaw, Lisa Beth Mark, and her two granddaughters, Sasha Ilise Mark “Shira” LeVine, and Leah Rachel Mark LeVine. Arrangements were

by Sinai Memorial Chapel in San Francisco and Weil Funeral Home in Cincinnati. Memorial contributions would be appreciated to the National Council of Jewish Women, the Alzheimer’s Association or the charity of one’s choice.

KESSEL, Doris Doris Kessel (nee Raab), age 85, passed away January 31, 2013, beloved wife of the late Jack E. Kessel, devoted mother of Charles (Margie) Kessel, John (Cindi) Kessel of Aurora, Ohio and Nancy (Brad) Erbeck, loving grandmother of Alex, Scott and Michael Kessel, Lauren Smith, and Katie and Steven Erbeck.

Services were held at Weil Funeral Home on Sunday, Feb. 3.

Memorial contributions to Wise Temple would be appreciated.

COLE, Ruth L. Ruth L. Cole (nee Lazarus) peacefully passed away on Friday, February 1, 2013, at Hospice of Cincinnati after 84 years of an active life. Her friends and family honored her life with services at Weil Funeral Home on February 4, and she has while she shopped not far from the kiosk where she sells tickets for Mifal Hapayis, Israel’s national lottery. The job is a far cry from her work as an economist in Moscow.

She grew up in nearby Kaluga, where Berl (who died in 1974) lived with the family.

She remembers Berl occasionally attending clandestine prayer services at acquaintances’ homes in Kaluga during the period of Soviet

Betty Antonoff of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Her brothers Jeffrey, Frank and David Lazarus are deceased. Ruth was the daughter of the late Adelaide and Jeffrey Lazarus.

The family asks that contributions be made to the Cincinnati Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Ruth’s name.

RASSELL, Marvin Joseph, M.D.

been laid to rest in Spring Grove Cemetery, next to her husband Edward H. Cole, who passed away on June 2, 2010.

Ruth will be remembered for her active life and contributions to the Cincinnati community. She was an avid sports woman with particular passions for golf, tennis and the Cincinnati Reds. She was a dedicated volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoological and Botanical Gardens. She was a patron of the arts in Cincinnati, frequenting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra throughout her adult life.

Ruth is survived by her children, Jacqueline (Kevin) Cooper, Edward Cole Jr., and Debra (Stephen) Hicks, her grandchildren Mona (Jay) Berkemeyer, Joe (Christi) Cooper, Erin Cooper, Matthew Hicks, Jonathan Hicks, and Andrew Hicks, two greatgrandchildren, Ellie Berkemeyer and John Cooper, and her sister

Marvin J. Rassell, M.D., ACR Fellow, passed away on February 3, 2013. He was 92 years of age and is survived by his wife of 70 years, Sylvia Rassell; two children, Jody Rassell and Stuart Rassell; three grandchildren, Sarah Rassell, Aaron Rassell and Dashiell Nathanson.

Marvin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Walnut Hills High School, Miami University and University of Cincinnati Medical School. He interned at New York City, City Hospital and completed his residency in Radiology at Hines Hospital in Chicago. He served as a Chief of Radiology in the Army in Korea.

Marvin lived with his wife and children in Hamilton Ohio, where he headed the Radiology Department at Hamilton Mercy Hospital, McCullough Hyde Hospital in Oxford, Ohio and Mercy Fairfield. He was the first radiologist to employ MRI equipment in the state of Ohio, ordered for Mercy Hamilton.

Upon his retirement, Marvin and Sylvia moved to San Diego, Calif., where he lived for 24 years playing golf, travelling the world, attending political science and policy classes at the University of

California, San Diego, and enjoying his family, friends and grandchildren. In January 2013, Marvin and Sylvia moved back to Cincinnati and Sylvia is residing at the Kenwood by Senior Star.

An avid music lover and reader of literature, politics, current events and mystery stories, Marvin was a great teacher and mentor to his medical colleagues, children and grandchildren. He was a larger-than-life lover of life with an ever-present smile and sense of humor. His family nickname was the “Storyteller” and his stories were told often, and will be retold for years to come.

For tribute donations to Marvin Rassell please go to www.mazon.org. Mazon is a Jewish response to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel.

repression and the prayer shawls worn by the men at Friday night services in her home.

On Greenberg’s trip to Novaya Ushitsa last May, a woman gave her the 1985 written testimony of a villager who had witnessed the Nazis’ wholesale murder of the Jewish community on Aug. 20, 1942. Greenberg visited the forest where the killing occurred.

Standing at the edge of the pits where more than 3,000 Jews were shot, Greenberg considered the

hilltop village’s springtime beauty and attractive park of the present.

She tried to comprehend how here, in four pits 10 meters apart, the village’s Jewish life ceased that summer’s day. She considered the testimony’s mention of the teacher recognized by the man in the procession of doomed Jews; the little girl seized from a hiding place and thrown into the line of marchers; the killers cramming each hole as tight as possible before mowing down the occupants; the villagers

waiting until the shooting stopped to grab the forsaken clothing at the pits’ edge; the blood-discolored earth; the ground continuing to shake and moan hours later.

Greenberg recently spoke with a Tel Aviv man raising funds for his book about Novaya Ushitsa to be translated into English. She intends to help him memorialize their ancestral village. She also got out the word on the Israeli radio program “Hamador L’chipus Krovim” (Searching for Relatives Bureau).

CASSPI from page 8

Casspi’s inactivity speaks to the success of Coach Byron Scott’s current rotation of players.

“It’s not so much anything Omri has done. Boobie Gibson isn’t in the rotation, either,” the official said of Daniel Gibson, a guard.

Scott, the official said, expects backups to prepare even harder, both before and after practice.

“Omri certainly has done that, without question,” the official said. “Omri’s routinely one of the last guys off the court.”

His status now is “stuff I can’t control,” Casspi explained. “That being said, I’m working for an opportunity. When I got an oppor-

tunity, I played – and played well.

It’s the coach’s decision and I have to live with it.”

One Cavalier who’s done just fine is Irving, and Casspi revels in his teammate’s rise. Last year’s NBA Rookie of the Year, Irving was selected recently to the Eastern Division squad that will play in the All-Star Game on Feb. 17 in Houston. With a recent injury to Boston guard Rajon Rondo, Casspi said, Irving should be elevated to All-Star starter.

“Kyrie’s a special player and an up-and-coming superstar, no doubt about it,” Casspi said. “The kid is special.”

Ruth L. Cole

But some numbers told another story. Casspi’s average minutes per game – a good indicator of a player’s prominence in a team’s rotation – was declining steadily. Over his first three years, his average minutes dropped from 25.1 to 24.0 to 20.6.

And his points per game dropped, too, from 10.3 to 8.6 to 7.1.

This year, the bottom fell out.

Casspi, the NBA’s lone Jewish player, has played in just 29 of Cleveland’s games, started only one and averaged 11.4 minutes and 4.0 points.

A Cavs official said that

Marvin J. Rassell, M.D.

AI

2013 CALENDAR FOR SPECIAL ISSUES & SECTIONS

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PAMELA & BERNARD BARBASH RECIPIENTS OF THE ISRAEL65 AWARD

Pamela and Bernard Barbash display the Israel65 Award with, from left: Master of Ceremonies Howie Mandel; Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz; Israel Bonds President & CEO Izzy Tapoohi; and Chairman of the Board Richard Hirsch

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Thursday

This is not an offering, which can be made only by prospectus. Read the prospectus carefully before investing to fully evaluate the risks associated with investing in Israel bonds. Member FINRA Photo: ZimZoom Photography

Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati invites you to a special evening featuring:

April 11

LAURIE ANN GOLDMAN CEO, Spanx, Inc. 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. at the Mayerson JCC

SAVE the DATE

Women’s Philanthropy

2013 Community Campaign Partner

tendees

You will have an opportunity to support the community through a gift to the 2013 Community Campaign.

$50 Spanx giftcards will be given to all atDetails coming soon!

Debbie Brant, Chair, Women’s Philanthropy EVENT CO-CHAIRS: Karen Abel, Carrie Goldhoff, Wendy Pelberg, Galite Silverman